Crumbling Facade
by Mewmewmewtwo
Summary: Kotone is a young girl ready to live her dream as a pokemon trainer. But she has a dark past and secrets left hidden... may have hints of soulsilvershipping. Rated T because of violence and swearing. No flames please! ON A HIATUS.
1. Chapter 1 :Beginning

Facade

A little girl ran away from her house as her father's words rang in her ears. "You worthless little brat! Get out of my sight!"His breath reeked of the beer he was holding in his hand. Suddenly, without warning, he threw the bottle at her head, causing blood to fly everywhere. Clutching her head as she ran, she headed towards the forest, her place of comfort as blood dripped from between her fingers. Bleep! Bleep! Bleep! Kotone groaned and hit the button on her alarm clock. "_It was just a dream.. or a nightmare." _Kotone then rolled out of bed and stood in front of the mirror. "_What a_ mess…"she thought. Her chocolate-colored hair was messy and knotted, and her eyes looked dull and depressed. Kotone slapped herself across the face. "_Get a grip on yourself. If everybody saw you like this they would ask too many questions."_ Her chocolate eyes brightened, and a cheerful smile stretched across her face. She combed her hair and put it in a ponytail, then placed her trademark black marshmallow hat on her head, arranging it so that it covered the hideous scar on the side of her head. "_Thanks __a lot, Dad," s_he thought as she rearranged the hat. Then, putting on her black silk gloves to cover the scars on her arms and hands, (and not to mention two metal bracelets etched with strange writing) She put on her black and blue jacket, changed out of her pajama bottoms, and put on her neon blue skirt and headed downstairs. " Good morning Kotone sweetheart," said the woman who pretended to be her mother. "**Good morning**," Kotone wrote on a piece of paper. Kotone wasn't exactly comfortable talking to other people, so everybody assumed she was mute. " Do you know what day it is?" asked Mrs. Soul. " **Yep**!" Kotone wrote back. Today was the Kotone was getting her first Pokémon. It had been a month since she had filled out the paper needed in order for her to receive a starter from professor Elm.

(Kotone's POV)

I walked outside the door and headed towards the research lab across the street. Just then, I noticed a red haired boy about my age staring into the window. " _Stalker..I wonder what he's up to. "_ I then walked up to where the boy was, my high-heeled boots making no noise. I felt a rush of satisfaction. "_Mightyena would be proud_." I walked up behind the boy, and realized he didn't hear me coming." _Even after spending a year with humans I still forget that their hearing is terrible."_ With that, I kicked at a rock, and the boy spun around.

( Silver's POV)

I heard a scuffle behind me. Whipping around, I saw a girl about my age standing right behind me. I jumped. I hadn't realized that she had been standing there. Smiling widely, she cocked her head towards the window, as if asking what I had been doing. " None of your business, so go away." I turned back towards the window, ignoring her. "_Stupid tinted windows..."_ " So this is the famous Pokémon lab? Doesn't look like much." I thouht out loud. I heard the noise of pencil on paper, and turned around. The girl was holding out a piece of paper, which said," **Duh. You aren't in Kanto anymore, Dorothy. My name's Kotone, what's yours?**" I stiffened. How did she know I was from Kanto? " Are you still there, girl? Will you get the hell out of here?" With that, I rudely shoved her away. She quickly got up, dusted herself off, shrugged and walked away.

( Cyndaquil's POV)

The door to the lab opened, and the professor walked over to greet the other human who walked in. " Why hello Kotone! Here to pick up your starter?" The girl nodded. "Well, they're right here." The professor walked her over to our pen. " Hey Cyndaquil!"  Totodile whispered to me. " What?" I whispered back. " That girl's going to be a trainer! Do you think one of us will be picked, like Chikorita was?" I nodded. It was probably going to be Totodile that was going to be chosen. He was strong, and unlike me he wasn't scared of people. Just then the girl walked over. I squeaked and ran into a corner. Totodile, on the other hand, wagged his tail and looked happy. The girl, Kotone, I think that was her name, smiled. That smile was beautiful. Warm and cheery, it made me feel good, no, amazing. After playing with Totodile for a bit, she came over to me. Panicking, my back erupted in flame, burning her glove. Elm and Totodile looked shocked. I looked up, expecting Kotone to be angry, but she laughed. Sitting down, she cocked her head and twitched her hips. This I knew meant friend in the language of Pokémon. Slowly, carefully, I made my way over to her. Building up courage, I sat on her lap. She smiled, and started to gently stroke my head. It felt good. She gestured towards me. " You want this one?" the professor asked. She nodded." Well, go ahead. She's all yours. Now then, can you do me a favour?" Kotone nodded. " Mr. Pokémon said he had a discovery to show me. If you could be so kind, will you find out what it is please?" Picking me up, Kotone nodded, and walked outside the door.

(Kotone's POV)

I looked at the tiny Pokémon in my arms. I then whispered in her ear," Since we're going to be partners,I don't think it's far to call you Cyndaquil. How about Starfire?" Squeaking her consent, we headed off to Mr. Pokemon's house.


	2. Chapter 2: KnickKnacks

Kotone walked through the tall grass, Starfire in her arms. The little Pokémon was still trying to process the fact that Kotone could talk. Suddenly, a rattata jumped out from the grass, tiny fangs bared. "Um… Starfire, use tackle?" The little Pokémon jumped from her arms and slammed the rattata to the ground. It was an instant K'O. Bending down to where the Pokémon lay unconscious, Kotone pulled a sitrus berry out of her pocket. She then placed the berry next to the rattata and picked up Starfire. Whispering about how good Starfire did, she continued onwards. The next Pokémon to bother them was a pidgey. Starfire jumped down from Kotone's arms and stared her opponent down. The pidgey leered back at her. Circling each other, the two Pokémon waited for the other to make a move. Finally, Starfire darted forward, slamming into the pidgey. Getting up, the pidgey hurled sand in Starfire's eyes. While her opponent was still recovering, the pidgey slammed into Starfire. Kotone was rather impressed that the pidgey had lasted five minutes already. Before either Pokémon could do anything, she whipped out a pokeball and threw it at the pidgey. In a minute, they had a new teammate. "Ok, since you're our partner now, I'm going to give you a name, alright?" The pidgey nodded. In the 10 minutes since she had been caught, the pidgey had fought until Starfire calmed her down. Now, she was ready to join Kotone on her quest to be the Champion. "….and your name will be Skydance." Skydance blinked. Had she really zoned off while Kotone was talking?

One hour later…

They had finally made it to Cherrygrove City, and Kotone was looking forward to rest her Pokémon in the pokecenter. But before she could do anything, an old man ran up to her. "Hi, I'm the guide gent. Are you a rookie trainer? Don't worry; everybody's a rookie at one point. I'll show you all the basics for every trainer!" He ran off before Kotone could process everything he just said. "_Crazy old man… He's worse than Barry, and that's saying something!'_ Shaking her head, Kotone followed the hyper old man into Cherrygrove. "Here's the pokecenter, and the pokemart right next to it... And here's the sea, as you can see. Many Pokémon only live in the water. And here's my house! For keeping up with me, you get a pair of running shoes!" Kotone smiled and accepted them when secretly she wanted to scream that she already knew all of this. Plus, she'd stick with wearing knee-high boots. She could run perfectly fine with them. Walking towards the pokecenter, she gave her pokeballs to Nurse Joy. As she waited for her Pokémon to be healed, she wondered how her friend May back home was doing. As soon as her pokegear got fixed, she'd have to call May. As she walked out the door, she promptly bumped into a certain red-haired boy. "You again? Can't you leave me alone?" Starfire squeaked at the boy. "Go away, Kotone doesn't like you." He blinked. "I see that you got a Pokémon. Well, so do I. I'm going to crush you and your pathetic Pokémon!" He released a Totodile from its pokeball. Kotone's eyes widened. _"Dorothy's got a __Toto__dile!"_ A wide grin stretched across her face. "What are you smiling at? Totodile, scratch!" Starfire jumped from Kotone's arms and slammed into the attacking totodile, jumping away without a scratch on her body. The boy growled. "Scratch again!" Starfire looked up at Kotone. When she nodded, Starfire released smoke from her back as she jumped. Unable to see her coming, totodile didn't dodge the attack. "Grrr... water gun!" The attack hit, and Starfire yelped. Shaking, she got up slowly. Kotone ran over to the tired Pokémon, recalling her into her pokeball. Pulling out another pokeball, she sent out Skydance. Skydance tackled the already exhausted totodile to the ground, crowning Kotone the winner. "Humph! I only lost because my Pokémon was weak. Useless thing…." Kotone frowned. Marching over, she stuck a piece of paper in his hand. "**How dare you treat your Pokémon like that? Pokémon are our friends, not tools!"** While the boy was busy reading her note, Kotone plucked the trainer card out of his pocket. "_So his name is Silver… Hehe, this is nice. Now I know his trainer ID and a lot of his personal information…" _When Silver saw the ID in her hands, he panicked. "Hey! Give me that back!" Snatching the card from her hand, he pushed her and walked off. "Umm…" Kotone headed back inside the pokecenter with a sigh.

An exhausted Kotone stumbled into Mr. Pokémon's house. It had taken her the ENTIRE DAY to get to his house. Two men were busy talking. One of them walked over to her. "Ah, so you must be Kotone! Come here, I have something to show you." Leading her to a small table, he pulled the tarp off the object. "Ta da! My latest discovery!" Kotone looked at the object. It was a Pokémon egg. She wanted to scream. She had gone all this way FOR AN EGG. Kotone fainted from the mind blowing stupidity. She woke up to a bucket of water in her face. "Well my dear, while you were out cold, I examined your Pokémon. I hope you don't mind," said the other man. Seeing the confused look on her face, he paused and said, "Pardon me, I don't think we introduced ourselves. I am Professor Oak, and the man who woke you up is Mr. Pokémon. I must say, the bond between you and your Pokémon is amazing. So I would like to gift you with this." He then handed her a Pokedex. "This item is a Pokedex. It records data from Pokémon on sight. I hope you will fill it out for me, so that I may study Pokémon better." Kotone nodded. Picking up Starfire, and allowing Skydance to sit on her hat, she walked out the door. The sun was setting, and Kotone sighed. "Well, I guess we're staying in Cherrygrove tonight."


	3. Chapter 3: Sleepover Secrets

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon or feriswheelshipping would be non canon.

Author's Note: This chapter is just a filler. Please don't blow up on me for the boringness.

Kotone walked into the Pokecenter with her Pokémon just as the sun set. Placing a slip of paper on the counter, she brooded over the day's events. "_If it weren't for Silver, I could have made it to New Bark by now. I hate staying in Pokecenters. There are far too many people_. The egg in her arms trembled a bit. Kotone was then shaken out of her trance by Nurse Joy. "Of course you can have a room sweetheart! The room number's 10." Taking the keys, Kotone smiled and walked up the stairs. As soon as she entered the room, Kotone locked the door, closed the curtains, and checked for security cameras. When she was sure that she wasn't being watched, she finally relaxed, leaving her Pokemon sweatdropping at their trainer's paranoia. Propping the egg against a pillow, Kotone walked into the bathroom to take a shower and to brush her teeth. Starfire turned to Skydance and asked,"What do you think Kotone's so scared of?"  Skydance shrugged. "I don't know, but I think she's hiding something."  Starfire sighed. "I'm not sure why nobody hasn't noticed, but Kotone always seems so sad and akward around other people. I really want to be able to help her though."  Before Skydance could reply, Kotne walked in. " Ok you two, what do you want to eat? Poffins, pokeblocks, berries, or something else?" Skydance's mouth started watering. " A poffin with aprijuuuuuuuice!" Starfire just stared at her hyper friend. " I just want a pecha berry pokeblock. Nothing else. Never mind, I want moomoo milk." Kotone nodded and walked over to the kitchen and pulled out a pouch full of poffin batter. Pouring it into the pot, she added the pecha berries and some honey and began to cook.

Five minutes later, her Pokémon were tearing into the food while Kotone just watched. After they had finished, Skydance fluttered on to her head and sat there contentedly while Starfire curled up on her lap. Kotone then proceded to eat her own meal, which was just five reviver herb leaves and a cheri berry. As Kotone sat there, she decided to tell her pokemon the secret nobody knew about: her past. Slowly, she spoke." I need.. I need to tell you two something. About me. I'm telling you now, so that you can decide whether you wish to travel with me or not." Skydance and Starfire exchanged a glance. What in the world was Kotone talking about? Kotone took a deep breath and took off her jacket, boots, gloves, and hat, revealing tons of scars going down her back, as well as a brand on her shoulder, scars on her arms, and on her legs. The scar on her forehead was in sharp contrast with the rest of her skin. " My father was a criminal. I will never know why my mother married him, but she did, and she gave birth to me. He was always drunk when he was home, but sometimes he'd dissapear for weeks on end, leaving us alone. He would beat my mother, and abuse me. I took to running away to the forest when he would hurt me. The Pokémon there would nurse me back to health, helped me, and were my friends and I learned how to understand Pokémon that way. When I was four, I convinced my mother to run away. Since we were so poor, and the other people in our town hated us, there wasn't enough money to support both of us, so I convinced Moma that I would be ok alone. By the time I was five, I was on my own." Taking her hand off her burn, which she had rubbed the entire time as if it was pencil and if she kept rubbing hard enough, it would fade away. Starfire gasped. She recognised the crest burned on Kotone's arm, she had seen it alot on the news recently. Finally, Starfire spoke." I don't care who your father is, I am still your friend. I hope you know that Kotone. Skydance nodded. " So am I." Kotone smiled. " Thank you for understanding. Do you mind if I do one more thing?" " What is it Kotone?"  Starfire was curious now. " I want to perform the empathy bond." Starfire blinked. The empathy bond? She was sure she had heard the name before... Skydance was shocked. She was sure the spell had been lost to humans, so how? Kotone smiled. " Humans forgot becuase they can no longer talk to Pokémon. But Pokémon didn't forget, which is how I learned it." As she said that, her mind was on a day a long time ago...

( Flashback, Kotone's POV)

" Viora!" I ran across the meadow to the gardevior who was walking towards me. She smiled." Hello, Kokoro."  That was the nickname she gave to me, and sometimes I still use it as a fake name. " Viora, I wanna learn how to use my mind to be able to fight, and do whatever you do!" Viora smiled. " Silly Kokoro. It's not that easy." A pout flew across my seven year old face. " But Viora, you said that everybody can learn if they try hard enough! And the people who used to live in the Ruins of Alph did it all the time!" She sighed. " I'll teach you when you're ready. But let me tell you a story first." She paused. " Once, people and Pokémon didn't live the way they do now. Only the people who could prove themselves got chosen to be a Pokémon's partner. They promised to share the pain, so that the two partners were equals. Thus the empathy bond was born. People eventually forgot, but the Pokémon didn't. This is why when a trainer loses, they black out from Loser's Sickness."

(End flashback)

Kotone, after being given permission, began to chant the spell in a lost language, a soft glow coming from the bracelets as she sang. Pricking her finger, she let the blood fall on Skydance's head, then on Starfire's, completing the spell. A glow pulsed under Kotone's skin, and suddenly she could feel Starfire's injuries from earlier. " _We are bonded..."_

Well, that was nice! Just so you know, Kotone's dad was NOT a member of team rocket. Just so you know. I'm terribly sorry for the bad quality, my muse is somewhere under the couch hiding.


	4. Chapter 4: Things of the Past

Kotone, finger stinging, head and body pounding after performing the empathy bond, tucked the egg under blankets and tucked the exhausted Starfire and Skydance into the other bed. Laying down on the floor, (she never liked beds anyway) she closed her eyes and fell asleep, only to be plagued with memories.

(First dream, 6 years ago.)

Eight year old Kotone sat in a clearing and closed her eyes. Slowly, a purple glow surrounded her as the pebble in her hand floated upwards shakily and flew towards a wooden target, hitting it dead center. Opening her eyes, Kotone cheered and sang, "Viora, look, look, I hit the target!" Viora opened her eyes from where she was meditating, smiled and said, "Kokoro, you did it! I'm so proud of you." Kotone beamed. Viora was the best teacher ever. "Viora, are you gonna teach me something new?" Viora smiled and said, "Kokoro, I have taught you all that you need to know. How to heal and to defend. That is all. But maybe someday I will take you to meet Alakazam. He can teach you more." As they talked, they walked through the forest. Suddenly, a trainer and his mightyena stumbled into the pair. The trainer, being a trainer, threw a pokeball at Viora, who dodged the pokeball. The trainer, getting frustrated, ordered the mightyena to attack. The mightyena rushed forward and sucker punched Viora, causing her to flinch in pain. The trainer then threw another pokeball, but it was dodged by Viora again. In a rage, the trainer ordered the mightyena to attack again and again, beating it if it didn't. The attacks not only knocked Viora unconscious but severely injured her as well. Kotone had begged and pleaded for the trainer to stop, only for him to push her away. Finally, when Viora was a in a bloody heap on the floor did the trainer stop. Seeing Kotone for the first time, he sneered. "Was that your Pokémon, little girl? You should train it more. Next time, I expect a better match." Walking off, the trainer never glanced back. The mightyena, however, looked at the girl and whispered, "I'm sorry. Take her to a pokecenter. Maybe they can fix her. Please find it in you to forgive me." The mightyena then followed the trainer. Kotone did everything she could to drag Viora to their shared home, than tried to stop the bleeding. When that didn't work, she decided to rush to the nearest pokecenter. Walking in, she ran up to the nurse and begged her to help. The nurse, seeing the burn on her shoulder, refused, saying she wouldn't fall for whatever scheme Kotone was planning, and told her to leave. For the next few days, Kotone tried every single poultice and berry she knew of, but Viora wouldn't wake up. Finally, on the fifth day, Viora woke up. Weakened greatly, her last words were, "Promise me Kokoro, that you will never end up like that man." Kotone, tearing up, whispered back, "I promise, Moma." And so ended Kotone's three year childhood.

(Second dream, 5 years ago.)

Nine year old Kotone sat with the unown, learning about ancient history and the legendaries in the dusty Ruins of Alph. One day, they gifted her with a pair of beautiful platinum bracelets, carved with the glyph she had learned to read. "These are for you," they had whispered. "Once, we were powerful. Equal to the legendaries. Then one day, we came together and used our powers to make these bracelets for the first Queen of Alph, Chroma. These allowed her to up her psychic powers by tenfold, and to absorb pokemon attacks away from her. But by doing so, we became shells of what we used to be. Take them, as our gift to you." Kotone nodded, and slipped them on. She had not taken them off ever since.

(Third dream, 4 years ago.)

Ten year old Kotone sat with an alakazam, learning math and reading, science and writing. She frowned at the problem scratched into the dirt. A logic puzzle. She loved them, but they were hard. And, this one was written in the Sinnoh dialect, the Hoenn dialect, and the Kanto-Johto dialect. She frowned, and then scratched the answer. She smiled when she got it correct.

(Fourth dream, 3 years ago.)

11 year old Kotone learned how to swing from vines along with a grovyle, whooping with joy as she darted through the trees. A couple minutes later, she was pegged with a pokeball by a trainer who mistook the brown blur as a mankey.

(Fifth dream, 2 years ago.)

12 year old Kotone next to a mightyena as she rearranged her facial expression, learning how to lie without showing any clues, and to tell by body language who was lying. Turning to face the mighyena, she said smoothly, "My parents have my ID with them right now. I don't know where they are though." She waited as mightyena peered into her eyes, and then looked at her body posture. Nodding, mightyena signaled that she had passed the test. She smirked.

(Sixth dream, 2 years ago.)

Kotone focused, and then jumped, punched, and then kicked the target. The lucario nodded, and then beckoned towards her. Smiling, she began to spar with the lucario, as thumps echoed in the cave they were training in. Kotone threw the lucario to the ground, declaring her the winner. She felt a rush of satisfaction. Never again would she stand there helpless while someone she loved was hurt.

( Seventh dream, 1 year ago.)

Thirteen year old Kotone realized just how wrong she was as her mother's heart rate dropped, and the monitor flatlined, leaving her alone in the hospital. Her mother's will left her the Soul Dew and a broken heart, as she went to live with a Ms. Lyra Soul, her mother's childhood friend.

Kotone woke up covered in cold sweat and remembered why she didn't sleep much.


	5. Chapter 5: Violets and Cream

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. At least not yet anyway… remember, I am doing this based off mood swings, so one chapter might be angst and the other might be humorous.

Starfire woke up the next morning to find Kotone already awake and making breakfast. "Morning Starfire…" Kotone murmured. Starfire was intrigued. Kotone seemed to favor using gardivior's language a lot… As Starfire ate breakfast, Skydance woke up. "Good morning… FOOD!" Skydance was up in an instant and tearing into her food. Starfire could only roll her eyes. After finishing breakfast, Kotone tucked the egg back in its incubator and headed downstairs with Starfire and Skydance following. After returning the room keys, Kotone headed out the door.

Half an hour later, they reached New Bark Town after a battle with a rattata and another pidgey. Walking towards the Pokémon lab, Kotone noticed all the police and detectives running around the place. _"What happened? Was somebody killed or robbed?"_ Kotone was immediately on guard, as she wasn't exactly innocent herself… One of the police stopped her, saying, "Rule number one, the culprit will always return to the scene. So that makes you the culprit!" Kotone resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "What_ is this, a detective show? Why would the culprit return if they've finished the job?" _ Suddenly, the other kid in New Bark, Ethan, popped up. "It's not Kotone's fault! She was on an errand for the professor at the time!" Then Professor Elm walked by, muttering to himself. "Oh this is terrible! Totodile was stolen!" Then spotting Kotone, he walked over and started shaking her. "KOTONE! Where were you when I needed you! I called twice and you never picked up!" Kotone only trembled and decided it was best not to tell Elm she broke her pokegear sleeping in a tree. After he was done shaking her, he decided to tell her about what had happened. "Some boy around your age broke in and stole totodile! The lab aide who was with totodile said that the kid had red hair, but that was all he saw…" Kotone scribbled a note onto her notepad. "**I saw a boy like that. I battled him in Cherrrygrove."** Elm perked up. "Did you get his name?" Kotone nodded. _"I also got his birthday, trainer ID, and full name. But it's not like that matters, because everybody here thinks I'm too dumb to do anything but answer their questions." _" What was his name?" Kotone scribbled something down on the notepad. **"Silver."** "Thank you for your help." Everybody walked away, leaving Kotone alone with her pokemon. Shrugging, she walked off to get her pokegear back from Ms. Soul. "Here's your pokegear, sweetheart! Oh, and don't forget about the rent. It's 10000 poke, for your information." Kotone rolled her eyes and walked off. _"Some legal guardian. She doesn't even care." _She turned, and decided to give Elm the errand he forgot about.

An hour later...

Kotone stood at the edge of New Bark Town. After 9 months of staying put, she was glad to be on her way again. "Kotone!" She turned to see Ethan hurrying after her. "Do you know how to catch a pokemon?" Kotone scribbled a note down. "**Of course. Ever heard of Youtube tutorials?"** Ethan looked shocked. "Do you have any pokeballs with you?" "**Ever heard of Ebay?**" To prove her point, she pulled out a luxury ball and twirled it on her finger. Ethan facepalmed. Kotone walked off, ready to officially begin her journey.

While walking through the grass, a sentret popped out of the grass. Skydance fluttered down from her perch on Kotone's hat and jumped at the sentret. The sentret dodged and scratched Skydance, growling. Kotone decided to end the match and save Skydance's energy by whipping out a pokeball and catching sentret. Letting out their new team member, Kotone smiled at it and said, "I'm sorry for catching you, do you wish to be released?" The sentret stared at her for a second. Deciding she was a good person, and that she wanted to be friends with this trainer, the sentret shook her head no. Kotone smiled. "Well then, I'll have to name you. How about Cream?" The sentret, now named Cream, smiled and nodded, jumping onto Kotone's shoulder with a purr.

Two hours later, the foursome finally reached Violet City. There, Kotone rented out a hotel room, and headed to the Sprout Tower, where she was advised by a local to train for her gym battle. Walking towards the tall building, she was awed by the graceful tower that swayed slightly in the breeze. However, when walking in, she was suddenly uncertain of the tower's stability. "Greetings young trainer. This is Sprout Tower, where people learn how to work in harmony with Pokémon." Kotone jumped, as the monk had come out of nowhere. Ignoring the creaking pillar, she walked up the stairs. After battling her way through all the sages, she finally made her way to the top, where the elder waited. As she climbed up the rickety stairs, she heard the sounds of a battle. As soon as she heard the all too familiar voice, she immediately decided her day would go downhill from here. She was just in time to see a totodile water gun a tired bellsprout in the face, causing it to faint. Instead of praising his totodile, Silver just called it back. "You did very well," a tired old man who Kotone assumed was the Elder. "But you need to learn how to trust your Pokémon more. Pokémon are friends, not tools!" Silver just scoffed. "Yeah, and look where loving your Pokémon got you." Seeing Kotone, he added, "I'm not in the mood for battling another weak trainer." Throwing an escape rope out the window, he jumped out. "…" Kotone was left speechless. "Well," the Elder sighed. "I'm assuming you are here to battle me. Very well, I accept!" Kotone sent out Starfire, who squeaked her battle cry and stood, facing her opponent, a bellsprout. As soon as the two Pokémon were out, Starfire slammed into the bellsprout. While the bellsprout was still recovering, Starfire exhaled, a few little flames burning the bellsprout. The elder groaned and switched out the tired bellsprout, letting another bellsprout finish the fight. "_This girl… doesn't even need verbal commands, her Pokémon are so well trained. She must really trust them to do what they believe they should do." _ He smiled. "Young one, you have done well to advance this far. Bellsprout, vine whip!" The bellsprout's tiny arms stretched forward and hit Starfire repeatedly. Kotone winced. "_Ouch. I'm going to be sore for a week. Imagine how bad it is for Starfire though."_ Starfire, tired from all the fights earlier, fainted. Kotone called her back and rubbed her pokeball. "_You did well enough. I'm proud of you." _Sending out Skydance, who trilled and then faced her opponent. Lunging forward before the bellsprout could do anything; she slammed into the bellsprout and hurled sand in its eyes. "Bellsprout! Keep fighting! I know you can do it, use vine whip!" Kotone flinched. "_Again?_" Skydance shook, but got up again. Flapping her wings, she created a gust of wind, battering at the bellsprout and fainting it. "It's not over yet! Hoothoot, go!" The owl pokemon flew out of its pokeball, and faced down Skydance. Though tired, Skydance flapped her wings, creating a small gust of wind. The hoothoot shook off the attack, and dove at Skydance. A brown blur slammed into the hoothoot, and Kotone smiled. Skydance could do it, she knew she could. But then the hoothoot let a soothing trill, and its eyes pulsed with rings of color, causing Skydance to fall asleep. Kotone withdrew Skydance and sent out Cream, who gave a determined squeak and scratched the hootohoot over and over again. "This one's for Starfire! This one's for Skydance! And this one's for Kotone!" Cream let out one last, angry squeak and slammed her paw down, fainting the hoothoot. "Impressive. Your pokemon seem to put a lot of trust in you. Take this TM as my gift to you." But Kotone couldn't hear him, the effects from Starfire fainting and Skydance being put to sleep were already affecting her, and her heavy eyelids closed and she crumpled to the floor.


	6. Chapter 6: Chroma and the Zephyr Badge

Me: Hey Kotone, can you do the disclaimer?

Kotone: (*shakes head no*)

Me: Fine. Mewmewmewtwo does not own Pokémon. Enough said, let's get started!

Kotone woke up in a well lit room in a bed. Scrambling out, she searched everywhere for her Pokémon and found them on the table beside her bed, along with a note that said, "_Ms.,_ _we hope you don't mind that we moved you here after you collapsed last night. Breakfast is downstairs if you want it."_ Kotone let each of her Pokémon out and walked out of the room. Heading downstairs, she scribbled a note and left it on the door. "**Thank you for your help, I appreciate it a lot. I will be going now. Thanks for your help. - Kotone"**

She then snuck out of Sprout Tower and decided to spend the rest of the morning training. Walking past a trainer's school, she actually considered dropping in but realized, "_I already know all about being a trainer."_ An image of her beloved Viora flashed through her mind._ "Including some things I didn't want to know as well." _Heading into the tall grass, she checked to make sure nobody was watching. As soon as she was sure, she relaxed a little and said, "Ok, today we're going to work on speed, accuracy and strength. Let's start with Cream. Can you hit that apricorn off the tree without hitting any leaves?" Cream nodded determinedly and rushed towards the tree. Jumping up, her little claws flashed and she plucked the apricorn off and landed behind the tree. Kotone looked impressed. "Good job, you did wonderful! Skydance, it's your turn. Try to focus your gust on that group of rocks over there, but don't hit anything else." Skydance nodded, and flapped her wings. Immediately, the rocks began to spin in a strong gust of wind, but everything else was left untouched. Kotone nodded and hugged her tightly, a smile on her face. "Starfire, try to have your ember hit that target." Kotone then took out her pencil and drew a little ring on the boulder she was leaning on. Starfire nodded, and exhaled through her mouth, a few spurts of flame scorching the rock. Training went on like this for a while, with the occasional Pokémon battle as well. Suddenly, Starfire found herself bathed in a blue, glowing light. As Kotone and the others watched, her form began to change. Kotone dipped her head. "Starfire, you are evolving. Do you wish to change, or keep your current form?" Starfire looked at her and squeaked, although it wasn't as high pitched anymore. "For… you. To be strong …for my friends." The glow grew harsh, and Starfire's form changed. Her body length grew, and her muscles developed and strengthened. The flames on her back burned brighter, and her red eyes opened at last. Starfire had evolved. Kotone smiled. "You've grown." Skydance and Cream were both very happy for their friend and cheered happily. "Yayy! Yay! Starfire evolved! Yay!"  Cream sighed. "I wonder what I'll look like when I evolve. Starfire smiled. "You'll probably be the cutest and strongest of them all, whatever you evolve into." Cream brightened. "Thank you!" Kotone looked at their current location. "_We aren't too far away from the Ruins of Alph. I guess there's still time to drop in on some old friends."_ She turned towards her Pokémon. "Do you mind if I visit some old friends of mine?" Curious, they shook their heads no. She smiled, picked up Cream and put Skydance on her perch on her hat, Starfire walking at her heels. She then set off towards the Ruins of Alph.

Kotone reached the Ruins of Alph fifteen minutes later. Walking into the main building, she peeked in. "_C? Z? M? Are any of you here? Hello….?"_ She frowned. Ever since scientists had begun studying here, the unown were very cautious about showing themselves. She then walked in, her Pokémon marveling at the ancients glyphs carved into the wall, patterns and more glyphs traced in black pigment, and the Pokémon statues forming a kind of walkway. Tracing her finger along the glyphs on the wall, she read the sentences as well as identifying the statues. "_Time flows eternal…_ _The Great One sleeps… It's a Dialga statue! Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a nanab berry… Chroma, what the heck?"_ Little did she notice the glyphs on the wall had peeled themselves off the wall, opening their eye. "_Chroma… Chroma!"_ The cry filled the room, and all of the unown peeled themselves off the wall, circling around her happily. "_Chroma! Where have you been? We've missed you!"Welcome back!"_ Nobody was there to see the reunion except for one very stunned scientist. She smirked. "_Places."_ She waved her hand. "_I've missed you too, and I'm glad to be back."_ "Excuse me..." Starfire spoke up. "Why are you calling Kotone Chroma?" The unown blinked. _"Chroma is the name given to all of the queens of Alph. It is only right____that Kotone is called Chroma." _"Does that make Kotone Queen of Alph?" Cream squeaked. "Yes, yes it does."  It was Kotone who spoke up. "After all, I am the last heir to the throne." The unown cleared their throat. "_Sooo… how's life?"_ Kotone sighed. "Not too good, Mum died a year ago." The unown blinked. "_We know how it feels. Every one of our human friends is gone now." _ Kotone blinked. Noticing the scientist, who was still gawking, she finally muttered, "It's always fun talking to you, but we're being watched…" Seeing the scientist, the unown bobbed up and down. "_Don't worry, we can make him forget. It's one of the few things we can still do, after all."_ Kotone shrugged. "See you guys soon!" _"Bye Chroma! See you!"_

Kotone walked back to her hotel room, where she performed the empathy bond on Cream. Then, deciding to celebrate Starfire's evolving, she went and bought them all lunch at a nearby restaurant. While her Pokémon happily dug into their meal, Kotone picked at the people friendly poffin she had ordered. She had never eaten this kind of food, as she lived off berries, roots, leaves, and nuts. She had a feeling that eating it now would cause her to throw up, and decided to split it among her Pokémon.

After lunch, she decided to challenge the gym's trainers to see where she stood against Falkner. Walking into the gym, she stopped and stared. There was nothing there except for a raised platform. "Go ahead," a very shifty looking man said. "Climb on." By looking at the man, she realized he wasn't intending to do her any harm. So, she hesitantly stepped on to the platform. She wanted to scream, to yell, to swear, but the breath was yanked out of her as she and her Pokémon were shot into the air. She ended up two stories in the air on a wooden catwalk, where a trainer was waiting. "Okay, I'm gonna show you what I got! Go pidgey!" The little bird flew out and trilled. Kotone nodded, and Cream rushed forward. Charging at her opponent, she raised her claws. The pidgey tried to dodge by flying, but was shocked to find the little sentret jumping and sinking her claws into his wing, bringing him down. Scratching at him, she battered him into submission. Growling, the trainer sent out his next Pokémon. Sending out a spearow, the trainer growled at her. "Spearow, peck!" Cream switched out for Skydance, who jumped out of the spearow's way and flapped her wings, blowing the spearow off course and injuring it. She lunged forward at a speed too fast for the eye to catch and brought the spearow down. The trainer glowered at her. "Fine, you win. I hope Falkner beats you." Kotone ignored him and walked onwards. The next trainer was viciously destroyed by Starfire and her new technique: flame wheel. Finally, she moved on to the last trainer, the gym leader Falkner. Smiling, she stepped forward with her Pokémon in battle stance.

I think the gym guide looks shifty. Here is Kotone's Pokémon party and their levels:

Starfire: female quilava, level 17

Cream: female sentret, level 12

Skydance: female pidgey, level 13


	7. Chapter 7: Of Gym Battles and Evolving

Me: Hey Kotone, can you do the disclaimer?

Kotone: (*shakes head no*)

Me: Fine. Mewmewmewtwo does not own Pokémon. Enough said, let's get started!

Kotone woke up in a well lit room in a bed. Scrambling out, she searched everywhere for her Pokémon and found them on the table beside her bed, along with a note that said, "_Ms.,_ _we hope you don't mind that we moved you here after you collapsed last night. Breakfast is downstairs if you want it."_ Kotone let each of her Pokémon out and walked out of the room. Heading downstairs, she scribbled a note and left it on the door. "**Thank you for your help, I appreciate it a lot. I will be going now. Thanks for your help. - Kotone"**

She then snuck out of Sprout Tower and decided to spend the rest of the morning training. Walking past a trainer's school, she actually considered dropping in but realized, "_I already know all about being a trainer."_ An image of her beloved Viora flashed through her mind._ "Including some things I didn't want to know as well." _Heading into the tall grass, she checked to make sure nobody was watching. As soon as she was sure, she relaxed a little and said, "Ok, today we're going to work on speed, accuracy and strength. Let's start with Cream. Can you hit that apricorn off the tree without hitting any leaves?" Cream nodded determinedly and rushed towards the tree. Jumping up, her little claws flashed and she plucked the apricorn off and landed behind the tree. Kotone looked impressed. "Good job, you did wonderful! Skydance, it's your turn. Try to focus your gust on that group of rocks over there, but don't hit anything else." Skydance nodded, and flapped her wings. Immediately, the rocks began to spin in a strong gust of wind, but everything else was left untouched. Kotone nodded and hugged her tightly, a smile on her face. "Starfire, try to have your ember hit that target." Kotone then took out her pencil and drew a little ring on the boulder she was leaning on. Starfire nodded, and exhaled through her mouth, a few spurts of flame scorching the rock. Training went on like this for a while, with the occasional Pokémon battle as well. Suddenly, Starfire found herself bathed in a blue, glowing light. As Kotone and the others watched, her form began to change. Kotone dipped her head. "Starfire, you are evolving. Do you wish to change, or keep your current form?" Starfire looked at her and squeaked, although it wasn't as high pitched anymore. "For… you. To be strong …for my friends." The glow grew harsh, and Starfire's form changed. Her body length grew, and her muscles developed and strengthened. The flames on her back burned brighter, and her red eyes opened at last. Starfire had evolved. Kotone smiled. "You've grown." Skydance and Cream were both very happy for their friend and cheered happily. "Yayy! Yay! Starfire evolved! Yay!"  Cream sighed. "I wonder what I'll look like when I evolve. Starfire smiled. "You'll probably be the cutest and strongest of them all, whatever you evolve into." Cream brightened. "Thank you!" Kotone looked at their current location. "_We aren't too far away from the Ruins of Alph. I guess there's still time to drop in on some old friends."_ She turned towards her Pokémon. "Do you mind if I visit some old friends of mine?" Curious, they shook their heads no. She smiled, picked up Cream and put Skydance on her perch on her hat, Starfire walking at her heels. She then set off towards the Ruins of Alph.

Kotone reached the Ruins of Alph fifteen minutes later. Walking into the main building, she peeked in. "_C? Z? M? Are any of you here? Hello….?"_ She frowned. Ever since scientists had begun studying here, the unown were very cautious about showing themselves. She then walked in, her Pokémon marveling at the ancients glyphs carved into the wall, patterns and more glyphs traced in black pigment, and the Pokémon statues forming a kind of walkway. Tracing her finger along the glyphs on the wall, she read the sentences as well as identifying the statues. "_Time flows eternal…_ _The Great One sleeps… It's a Dialga statue! Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a nanab berry… Chroma, what the heck?"_ Little did she notice the glyphs on the wall had peeled themselves off the wall, opening their eye. "_Chroma… Chroma!"_ The cry filled the room, and all of the unown peeled themselves off the wall, circling around her happily. "_Chroma! Where have you been? We've missed you!"Welcome back!"_ Nobody was there to see the reunion except for one very stunned scientist. She smirked. "_Places."_ She waved her hand. "_I've missed you too, and I'm glad to be back."_ "Excuse me..." Starfire spoke up. "Why are you calling Kotone Chroma?" The unown blinked. _"Chroma is the name given to all of the queens of Alph. It is only right____that Kotone is called Chroma." _"Does that make Kotone Queen of Alph?" Cream squeaked. "Yes, yes it does."  It was Kotone who spoke up. "After all, I am the last heir to the throne." The unown cleared their throat. "_Sooo… how's life?"_ Kotone sighed. "Not too good, Mum died a year ago." The unown blinked. "_We know how it feels. Every one of our human friends is gone now." _ Kotone blinked. Noticing the scientist, who was still gawking, she finally muttered, "It's always fun talking to you, but we're being watched…" Seeing the scientist, the unown bobbed up and down. "_Don't worry, we can make him forget. It's one of the few things we can still do, after all."_ Kotone shrugged. "See you guys soon!" _"Bye Chroma! See you!"_

Kotone walked back to her hotel room, where she performed the empathy bond on Cream. Then, deciding to celebrate Starfire's evolving, she went and bought them all lunch at a nearby restaurant. While her Pokémon happily dug into their meal, Kotone picked at the people friendly poffin she had ordered. She had never eaten this kind of food, as she lived off berries, roots, leaves, and nuts. She had a feeling that eating it now would cause her to throw up, and decided to split it among her Pokémon.

After lunch, she decided to challenge the gym's trainers to see where she stood against Falkner. Walking into the gym, she stopped and stared. There was nothing there except for a raised platform. "Go ahead," a very shifty looking man said. "Climb on." By looking at the man, she realized he wasn't intending to do her any harm. So, she hesitantly stepped on to the platform. She wanted to scream, to yell, to swear, but the breath was yanked out of her as she and her Pokémon were shot into the air. She ended up two stories in the air on a wooden catwalk, where a trainer was waiting. "Okay, I'm gonna show you what I got! Go pidgey!" The little bird flew out and trilled. Kotone nodded, and Cream rushed forward. Charging at her opponent, she raised her claws. The pidgey tried to dodge by flying, but was shocked to find the little sentret jumping and sinking her claws into his wing, bringing him down. Scratching at him, she battered him into submission. Growling, the trainer sent out his next Pokémon. Sending out a spearow, the trainer growled at her. "Spearow, peck!" Cream switched out for Skydance, who jumped out of the spearow's way and flapped her wings, blowing the spearow off course and injuring it. She lunged forward at a speed too fast for the eye to catch and brought the spearow down. The trainer glowered at her. "Fine, you win. I hope Falkner beats you." Kotone ignored him and walked onwards. The next trainer was viciously destroyed by Starfire and her new technique: flame wheel. Finally, she moved on to the last trainer, the gym leader Falkner. Smiling, she stepped forward with her Pokémon in battle stance.

I think the gym guide looks shifty. Here is Kotone's Pokémon party and their levels:

Starfire: female quilava, level 17

Cream: female sentret, level 12

Skydance: female pidgey, level 13


	8. Chapter 8:Rocket vrs Kotone

Still not mine…

Kotone was rather pissed. She had headed into Azalea, ready for her next gym badge, only to find out that she couldn't because of the rocket grunts in the area. When she had asked around, all she had gotten was complaints about the slowpoke disappearance and offers to buy a slowpoketail. (This horrified Kotone, as she was strictly vegetarian) Sitting in Ilex Forest in a pine tree and watching her Pokémon play was rather calming, she had to admit. She loved the cool air, and enjoyed the damp, earthy scent. She smiled as she watched Skydance testing out her new wings, and Cream nibbling on berries. Kotone bolted up. Much as she wished she could, she couldn't just mope around. She had some rocket grunts to deal with… after she ate. She hadn't eaten anything since Union Cave.

Heading back into town, she stopped at a store to buy some treats for her Pokémon, while listening in on other people's conversations. "Did you hear? That old nutter, Kurt, was rambling on about how he wants to put a stop to the grunts in the well." Kotone smiled. She was going to look for an ally, because she was going to need one. "So what you're saying is that you want to take down team rocket?" Kotone nodded. "Well then, I'll help you." Kotone nodded and set off for the well, embarrassed that she had to struggle to keep up with an old man. Before she could go, the little girl stopped her. "Please miss! Take care of my grandpa!" Her eyes softened, and she nodded.

After she jumped down the well, Kotone found Kurt slumped against the wall. "Drat! I scared the grunt guarding the entrance off, but when he ran past me I lost my balance and fell. Kotone! Teach them a lesson for me!" Nodding, she walked off. The first grunt to bother her had his Pokémon crushed by Cream. On Kotone went, wiping the floor with all of the grunts' Pokémon. "_I'm sorry!" _she had mouthed. "_I have to do this…"_ Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "_Why?" _She wailed silently. "_Why is it that in order to take down a criminal organization, you only ever hurt their Pokémon?" _ Every now and then, she would come across a slowpoke with its tail cut off, a mangled and bloody stump in its place. Every single time, she would stop, pull out poultices from her bag, and tried to ease their pain. Eventually, she made her way to their leader. "I am Proton. I am often labeled as the scariest and cruelest executive. Do you really wish to mess with us?" How Kotone wanted to reply, "_Hell yes! But first of all, protons are positively charged particles. You don't look very charged, and if you were charged, it would be with negative energy. So shouldn't you be called Electron?" _She settled with a cocky smirk instead. Proton growled. "Koffing, go!" Kotone rolled her eyes and sent out Cream, who let out a battle cry and began battering the koffing with a series of blows. On the last blow, the koffing fainted. Proton growled, and Kotone scoffed, even though she hated hurting his Pokémon and would much rather kick them all in the ***. Proton sent out his next Pokémon, a zubat. "Leech life!" Skydance shot out, trilling and flapping her wings. The accidental gust battered the zubat, and Skydance lunged forward to finish the battle. The next pokemon was another koffing, and Kotone was rather bored. She lazily gestured towards the koffing, and Starfire lazily blew a couple of embers at him. The Ember attack, along with the burn that followed, knocked his last pokemon out. "I won't let you get away with this! Get her!" The grunts stepped forward. Kotone grinned. "_Revenge…"_ The first grunt lunged at her, and Kotone dodged lazily. As he staggered past her, she decided to give him a roundhouse to speed up his faceplant. The grunts surrounded her, and she smiled in a devious manner. "_This is going to be so much fun!"_

Silver headed towards the well, hearing that rocket grunts were causing trouble there. Suddenly, a couple of bruised grunts scrambled past him, some limping, others clutching broken noses or bloody scratches. "_What the…"_ Suddenly, a cloud of zubats erupted out of the well, and as they cleared he realized that someone was standing in the midst of them. It was Kotone. Her Pokémon at her heels, a shiny zubat at her side, she pointed towards the rocket grunts. The shiny zubat screeched, and the cloud of zubats flew after the grunts. Silver cowered and decided to stay FAR AWAY from Kotone at the moment, as there was a murderous glint in her eye.

Kotone ran through Ilex Forest chasing after the grunts. There was a certain deadly grace in which she ran through the forest, as graceful as a pokemon. The cloud of zubats had caught up with the grunts, and she watched as the grunts tried to search for a way out of the circle. She smiled cynically. She cocked her head at them, and they snarled at her. "What are you looking at?" snarled a male grunt. He regretted that when Kotone nodded and the ring grew smaller. "We give up!" cried another grunt as a zubat landed on him, flashing its fangs. Kotone smiled, exposing her fangs as well. Motioning towards the zubat, she led the group back to Azalea.

On the way back, she found that Kurt had recovered and he accompanied her to the police station. The moment the grunts were arrested, the zubats flew off. Proton had disappeared, but at least Kotone could now battle Bugsy.

Starfire: female quilava, level 19

Cream: female furret, level 18

Skydance: female pidgeotto, level 18

There is a typho in the last chapter, Cream is a furret now.


	9. Chapter 9:The Hive Badge and Ilex Forest

Disclamer: I DON'T OWN POKEMON. YOU DON'T NEED TO RUB IT IN.

A big shoutout to Sapphiet, who has been nice enough to review my crummy story.

Kotone walked into the gym, ready to wipe the floor with the trainers there. "_Looks like they really could use a cleaning or two. What's with all of the cobwebs and dust bunnies?" _As soon as she stepped out of the doorway, she was ambushed by a bug catcher. "Hi, do you want to battle? I want to battle! Battle me! Metapod, go!" _"ARRRRGGG!" _After a couple of rather boring battles, Kotone found herself face to face, "_Or rather_", Kotone noted, "_Face to chest. The gym leader is an eight year old kid."_ The boy looked at her. "I'm Bugsy, the bug type authority! I can't lose when it comes to bug types! Go scyther!" Kotone had to admit, she was rather impressed. "_Better than_ _metapod…" _Starfire stepped forward, ready for battle.

"******! Quit moving!" screeched Starfire as she shot small balls of fire at the stubborn scyther. The battle had been raging for about ten minutes, with both Pokémon dodging each others' attacks. Kotone knew both of them were tiring, although she hoped it would be scyther first. Finally, one of Starfire's ember attacks clipped the scyther's wings, causing it to panic. Starfire then used the distraction to run at the scyther, rolling it over with a flame wheel. When the smoke cleared, Starfire was standing over a fainted scyther. Kotone smiled and motioned Cream forward. "Alright! Go beedrill!" The angry little creature shot forwards, only to be swatted down by Cream's paw. "I don't like bugs," Cream declared. The beedrill got up, then shot sharp, poison covered needles at Cream. She wailed, and then launched herself at the beedrill, claws flashing. "You," Cream hissed. "I will faint you very slowly." After battering the beedrill around for a bit, she sniffed, and walked back to Kotone, trying to hide the fact that she had been poisoned. Bugsy stared for a moment. "Alright, you win! Here, take this TM. It's U- Turn." Kotone nodded, and then looked around. "_..." _Several of the trees in the gym were on fire, and the bug catchers were trying to put out the flames. "_Guess we need to work on accuracy!" _ There were also scorch marks on the wall where Starfire's ember was a bit off. Kotone shrugged, and then walked towards the nearest fire. She took a little sand from the battle arena, and then dumped on the fire, putting it out. Motioning the bug catchers to the arena, she walked out.

Walking in Ilex Forest, Kotone headed for a dense tangle of trees and undergrowth. Bending down, she searched for something as her Pokémon watched, puzzled. Pulling on a branch, she revealed a well camouflaged door. She motioned towards the door, and her Pokémon followed her in. Inside was a comfortable shelter weaved from bark, sticks, and grass and camouflaged by the thicket. The floor was entirely made of reeds, and there was even a spot where you could cook without setting fire to the entire shelter. Kotone sat down, and then began gently removing the needles from Cream's skin. Seeing the tinge of purple around the injury, she put a cooling poultice on the wounds, causing Cream to sigh in relief. To get the poison out of Cream's system, Kotone gave Cream a pecha berry. "So this is your place?" Skydance asked. "Yes, but I don't use it often. I prefer sleeping in trees. This is just for rainy days or for guests." Kotone smiled. "Cream, I can't believe you thought you could hide the poison from me. Empathy bond, remember?" Cream sighed. "I know. I just didn't want you worried." Kotone laughed. "I'm always worried about you guys, injury or no injury."

Kotone headed back into town, in order to get her Pokémon checked by Nurse Joy, although she knew her medicine worked fine. As she passed by a house, she saw three farfetch'd race out of the house, being chased by a young boy. "Excuse me, but can you get the farfetch'd back? I'd really appreciate that if you did that for me, miss." Kotone shrugged. Simple enough, right?

Back in Ilex Forest, Kotone looked for signs of the duck Pokémon. Suddenly, she saw one bump into her, then try to scramble away. "Hey! There's no need to run, I won't hurt you." The farfetch'd looked at her suspiciously, then nodded and rubbed against her. "You smell like home," the farfetch'd sighed. Kotone looked at the creature. _"It must have lived in Viridian Forest then. I spent most of my time in Kanto there."_ She looked at the farfetch'd, and then asked, "Why did you run away?" The farfetch'd looked at her. "All we ever do is work! We want somebody who has time for us, to play with us! Is that wrong?" Kotone spoke softly. "No, no it isn't wrong for you to want that. Come on; let's find the rest of you guys."  The next farfetch'd almost ran away from them, but then seeing his sister with the kind human girl, he followed them, as did the last one.

Kotone brought the three farfetch'd back to Azalea, and the boy ran up to her. "Woody! Flora! Pete! I'm so happy you came back! I was so worried don't ever scare me like that again!" Kotone smiled as the little boy hugged his three friends. Kotone smiled softly, and handed the kid a note. "**Always find time to play with your Pokémon. Make them feel loved, and they won't run away." **The boy nodded. "Thank you for helping me, miss! Here, take this HM. Oh, and this. It's charcoal. It helps boost fire attacks. My daddy makes it." Kotone nodded, smiling, and then put it her bag. Waving good bye, she headed into Ilex Forest. "_It's getting late…it doesn't matter, we'll spend the night in Ilex Forest._"

Walking up to a little sapling that was blocking the path, Kotone frowned. "THEY EXPECT ME TO CUT DOWN THIS POOR LITTLE TREE THAT I CAN JUST GO AROUND IN ORDER TO PASS THROUGH HERE? WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THIS?!" The pidgey exploded out of the trees as Kotone ranted.

"GARA DI, VIOR GARDIVIOR VIOR DI VIOR!" Silver winced as the once quiet forest exploded with noise. He growled. Stupid Johto trainers and their uncontrollable Pokémon. Shaking his head, he headed on to Goldenrod City.

OK, I know Bugsy doesn't have a beedrill, but it was more interesting that way. And it's true about the tree thing. Be kind to Mother Earth, Pokémon! ;)

Starfire: female quilava, level 20

Cream: female furret, level 19

Skydance: female pidgeotto, level 19


	10. Chapter 10: Goldenrod Shopping Spree

After Kotone finished her little rant, she stepped past the sapling and continued walking. Passing Celebi's shrine, she stopped, dipped her head, and murmured something softly. Cream looked at her trainer. "I didn't know you worshipped Celebi." Kotone turned towards Cream and said, "There is a difference between worship and respect. I respect the legendaries, but I do not worship them." A frown crossed her face. "Besides, they are very scary if you disrespect them." Satisfied with that answer, Cream nodded and continued walking. Further up the road, a young woman wearing a colorful kimono paced back and forth. Turning towards Kotone, she exclaimed, "I got lost wandering through the forest! Can you help me find the entrance?" Kotone nodded, and Cream scampered forward and pointed with her tail. The Kimono Girl smiled her thanks and, with a flourish of her sash, headed off.

After reaching the exit, she stepped out on Route night sky stretched out in front of her, and the distant lights of Goldenrod shined in the distance. She sighed. "You can't see the stars…" It was rather saddening. Kotone walked along the route, a couple of lonely stars shining in the ponds. All was quiet, peaceful, until… "Hiya! Battle me and my awesome Pokémon!" Kotone facepalmed.

Even at night, Goldenrod was one heck of a busy place, and Kotone tried not to be overwhelmed by the many smells, loud noises, and people. She braced herself, and tried not to run screaming back to Petalburg Woods or Eterna Forest. Grimacing, she slipped through the crowd, and managed to make it in one piece to the nearest hotel. Panting, both she and her Pokémon made it to the lobby, where Kotone rented a room and promptly collapsed on her bed, panting hard. "Screw Goldenrod… the people here are nuttier than Porygon-Z!" Starfire nodded, and then sheepishly muttered, "I think I torched a pedestrian while trying to get through the crowd." Cream stuttered, "Speaking of the subject, I Fury Swiped a little boy who tried to choke me to death." Kotone looked at them for a moment, and then asked, "Did EVERYONE maul a pedestrian? Although, come to think of it, I uppercut a guy who bumped into me. Ok guys, get some rest, because we're training tomorrow. I for one am going to shower, I smell like a dead skuntank…"

Kotone headed out towards Route 35, ready to do a day's worth of training. The first Pokémon that they saw, however, wasn't ready to battle. A little nidoran was being beaten up by bigger, stronger ones, and she was mewling in distress. Kotone growled. She hated those who picked on others weaker or smaller than themselves, after being in the same situation many times. Sensing her anger, Starfire growled at the little rodent Pokémon. Squeaking, as they suddenly weren't the biggest anymore, the other nidoran ran off, leaving the smallest one behind. Kotone sighed. "Bet you 50 poke their ability was rivalry." Bending down, she began to clean off the dirt from the cuts while stroking the little nidoran. Spreading a salve on the wounds, she wrapped bandages around the cuts. "WAIT!" squealed the nidoran. "T Thank you for helping me." Kotone smiled and nodded. "Glad to help." As she got up, the nidoran looked at her. "C Can I join you? I promise not to be a burden and to be strong…" Kotone cut her off. "Of course you can. I'd be happy to have you join us." The nidoran bounced around. "Yay!" Kotone looked at her. "I'm going to give you a nickname. How about Queen?" The nidoran, now named Queen, smiled and nodded. The rest of the morning was spent training Queen, and by mid afternoon she was caught up to the rest of the team. Everyone was exhausted, so Kotone decided to take a break from training.

"Coffee?" Skydance looked very confused. "What's coffee?" Kotone sighed. "A very bitter drink that actually tastes pretty good if you blend it right. It's a set ratio of sugar, cream, milk, vanilla, and caffine." "Oh." Skydance frowned. "I still don't get why this stuff is so tasty." Starfire looked impatient. "Come on! This coffee isn't going to wait for us!" Kotone smiled. "Try not to get addicted. This is a special treat, so we won't be having coffee for a while."

Kotone brought them to her favorite spot in Goldenrod, the Coffee Corner. There, Kotone ordered a large espresso with whipped cream and two squirts of vanilla. Sitting down at one of the tables, she mixed in three teaspoons of sugar, half a tablespoon of cream, and a little bit of Moomoo milk. After gulping some down, she let the caffeinated bliss work its magic. She then handed the cup to Starfire. Starfire hesitantly sipped the coffee, and then smiled. "Not bad! I like this stuff!" Skydance, Cream, and Queen all drank some, and everybody but Cream decided they liked it. After buying another large to take back to the hotel, they left the shop satisfied.

The next stop was the Goldenrod department store. Kotone just needed a couple of TMs, while the rest of her Pokémon wanted to go shopping. While there, Kotone managed to find the TMs she desperately wanted: thunder and steel wing. In the Pokémon accessories department, she found a bow for Queen and an amulet coin necklace, which the cashier told her that was on sale since nobody wanted it. "_Victory!"_ Kotone thought. _"These people don't realize they just sold an amulet coin for 1000 poke!" _

It was only until 9:00 p.m. did Kotone realize, "Damn, we were supposed to be training. Oh well."

Starfire: female quilava, level 20

Cream: level 20 female furret

Skydance: female pidgeotto, level 20

Queen: female nidorina, level 20


	11. Chapter 11: Plain Badge, Pretty Trainers

The next day, Kotone decided on doing the training she had forgotten about earlier. Running towards route 35, she decided to battle the trainers she had completely forgotten about the day before. Starfire meanwhile, was trying to explain gym battles and the Pokémon League to Queen. "So what you're saying is that Pokémon get to compete in battles with their trainers to see who the best is? Sounds like fun." Starfire nodded. "Sometimes you get hurt, but Kotone's got an empathy bond with us. Every time we get hurt, she does too. Kotone says it's fair that way." Queen nodded. "If you'll allow me, I'm going to perform the empathy bond now."Kotone walked in on their conversation. Wide eyed, Queen nodded.

Lucky for Kotone, she had cut herself walking through the tall grass, so she had some blood available without having to prick herself. Convinced that her team was strong enough, she headed towards the gym. Right before she went in, she put the Amulet Coin around Starfire's neck. Walking in, she was immediately bombarded with the worst stench in history, and she gagged. "Holy Moltres!" Kotone coughed. The gym was heavily perfumed, and the sweet, cloying stench would have been a little too much for even a regular human. But Kotone wasn't purely human, so it was worse. The terrible smell was amplified across everybody, so that Kotone could feel how bad it felt to her Pokémon, and they could feel her pain too. "At this rate, I'm going to be killed before we even get to Whitney," grumbled Skydance, flapping her wings to get rid of the smell. "Make it stop!" wailed Cream, who was batting at her nose. Holding their breath, the five headed forwards.

Much to Kotone's annoyance, the gym seemed to have no real order, and several times she thought of asking Starfire to flame wheel the walls down. "_But of course,"_ thought Kotone. "_I am __**not **__being held accountable for wrecking another gym."_ So Kotone trekked her way through the garish pink gym, occasionally battling makeup- addicted beauties that would pause in battle to redo their makeup. (Starfire particularly didn't like the beauties, as Kotone was the only female trainer she had met up until then. And Kotone smelled of pine trees, wildflowers, and a hint of cherry blossoms, not artificial flowers.)

Finally, Kotone made her way to Whitney, the gym leader. "Hi! I'm Whitney, the prettiest girl ever! Everybody was into Pokémon, so I got one too. Aren't my Pokémon perfect for a cutie like me? Go clefairy!" Kotone groaned and nodded towards Starfire. Starfire squeaked and plowed into the clefairy, fainting her with one fire wheel. "Eeek! My precious Pokémon! You'll pay for this! Go milktank!" The miltank sat there and blinked. Finally, it let out a confused moo. "Huh? You're disrupting my beauty sleep… oh, a battle." "Miltank, show them what you got! Attract on that quilava! The miltank stared at her trainer. "Whitney, sorry darling, but I'm not gay." Starfire rolled her eyes. Whitney frowned. "Rollout!" Starfire stared for a moment, and then tried to get out of the way as miltank curled into a ball and rolled into her. She squealed, and Kotone winced. Skydance flew up, and landed on the wall. "If I faint this cow thing, can we go? I think I lost the sense of smell already." Kotone nodded, and Skydance smirked. "Sorry, but I can't take this place any longer. Get ready to be blown away!" She flapped her wings, and a gust of wind blew, ruining Whitney's hair, an added bonus. The miltank shook off the attack, and curled into a ball. Skydance solved the problem by waiting until the last moment, and then flying upwards. Miltank crashed into a wall, bringing half of the gym down. _"Forget what I said about not wrecking another gym,"_ Kotone silently moaned. This managed to hurt the miltank bad enough, so Skydance flew down, ready to deliver the final blow. Annoyingly, the miltank held on, and Whitney applied a potion to her wounds. Kotone groaned. Skydance flew back to Kotone, and Queen stepped forward. "O- Ok, I can do this!" Queen cried. As the miltank rushed forward, ready to trample Queen, she shot a couple of poison barbs at the miltank, and then rolled out of the way. The miltank bellowed in pain, and a tinge of purple was visible near her wounds. Rushing forward, Queen lashed out, kicking the miltank with a series of blows. Shaking, the miltank got up, and then collapsed. "You, you big meanie! How could you!" Whitney threw a tube of lipstick at Kotone. The attack was so sudden; Kotone had no time to dodge it. It hit her, and the shock was enough to ruin Kotone's concentration. Her appearance flickered, and Kotone's illusion was ruined. No longer were her eyes brown and unremarkable, they were replaced by slanted, golden eyes that were rather large and catlike in appearance. Her lips were a remarkable cherry color, and her face had different proportions to accommodate her slanted eyes. The effect made Kotone look exotic and beautiful, and Whitney couldn't stand it. "_First she waltzes in and defeats my precious Pokémon, and then she has the nerve to look prettier than me! This is an outrage!"_ Kotone, sensing that she wouldn't be getting the badge anytime soon, crept out of the gym.

"Wait!" One of the beauties stopped her. "Whitney does that every time she loses. Take the badge, and go. I don't think she wants to see you again." Kotone nodded, and walked off, glad to have finally left the gym. She grumbled under her breath. "The reason I use an illusion is to make sure I don't get asked about plastic surgery or for a blood sample! It's not my fault the people of Alph looked like this!" She headed to their hotel, and treated all injuries. After that, seeing as she had no reason to stay in Goldenrod anymore, she headed off towards National Park, happy to leave noisy Goldenrod at last.

Kotone walked through National Park, caught between wanting to vomit and wanting to cry. All of the happy families enjoying playing with each other made her wish that this was how she grew up, happy, innocent, with a loving family. When Starfire nudged her sad trainer, she brightened a little bit. "_I don't need this. Viora, Mightyena, my current team, and all of the others were more than family to me. They were better parents and friends thant I ever had." _An image of her mother flashed through her head, how she had always comforted Kotone when she was hurt, even when her mother was hurt and sad as well. Kotone felt grief stab her heart. "_Moma… the only human I ever loved."_ Occasionally, they passed young couples together. This both disgusted and interested Kotone. Her parents had never had this kind of relationship, at least not when she was around. There had never been any of this "oh, I'll never leave you." It had always been, "Get me a beer, ******!" Kotone had observed Pokémon courtship rituals, but had never seen humans kiss. She decided that she didn't like this romance notion at all.

Kotone headed into Ecruteak City, instantly liking its formal, old fashioned air. It had taken a **lot **of work convincing the sudwoodo blocking the way to move. Heading into the city, her Pokémon gazed at the bright decorations and the cherry trees, which were in full bloom. "Hello traveler! Are you here to celebrate the Pokémon Festival, or to battle the gym leader?" an old man asked. Kotone shrugged. She hadn't been planning on coming during the festival, but she might as well participate.

Later that night, Kotone strolled through Ecruteack city, dressed in a white furisode embroidered with cherry blossoms. Her hair was up in a bun, and there was a bracelet in the shape of a dragonair coiled around her wrist. In her hair was what appeared to be an intricately carved hair clip, but was in reality a knife. Kotone decided she really didn't care if people saw her without the illusion, she would have Zubat brainwash them later. Of course this led to quite a lot of boys staring at her, and her Pokémon, who were also dressed up for the occasion, glared at them to keep them away. Starfire wasn't really worried about Kotone, but she knew that Kotone could easily hurt the boys if she wanted. Walking through the crowd, she stopped occasionally to admire the glow coming from paper lanterns. In the middle of the town square, people were dancing. People would join in, and get swept away by the amount of people dancing. "Come on Kotone!" Starfire cheered. "Dance!" Kotone shrugged, and headed towards a spot with no people. She stopped, and began to spin. Spinning, she moved in a slow circle, occasionally dipping down. As she danced, more and more people gathered to watch her. She started picking up momentum, spinning quicker but still keeping her movements small and graceful. The crescent moon suddenly shone bright in the night sky, no longer covered by clouds. The moonlight was focused on Kotone, bathing her in silver light. Spinning faster and faster, she stopped, posing. The crowd went wild.

Starfire: level 25 quilava, female

Skydance: level 25 pidgeotto, female

Cream: level 25 furret, female

Queen: level 25 nidorina, female (duh.)


	12. Chapter 12: Burned Tower

Kotone was seriously starting to regret dancing now. She was sore and couldn't really move that well. "Next time, remind me that Lunar Dance shouldn't be done for the heck of it." She shrugged. "Whatever. Too late now." As she talked, she wandered through the streets. Finally, she stopped at the Burned Tower. At the entrance was a sign. Caution! This building is unstable. Do not enter. Kotone turned towards her Pokémon. "Have I ever let a warning sign stop me?" They shook their heads. Kotone smiled, and then went in. She gasped. The tower had been left to rot over the years, and was blackened from the fire 150 years ago. But what really made her nervous was the fact that she could sense some kind of power under the floor. A strange man walked over to her. "Hello, I'm Morty, the gym leader here. This is the Burned Tower. You do realize you aren't supposed to be here, right?" Kotone nodded. "Well, I can't do anything about it. Feel free to take a look around, but be careful. The floor isn't too stable." Kotone nodded.

As usual, his rival had to show up in the weirdest of placesthought Silver. This time was defiantly odd, as she was wearing a furisode instead of her jacket, leggings, and skirt. She had ditched the poofy hat as well. At least the change was for the better. She seemed to be looking for something. Occasionally, she would turn around and ask her Pokémon something, and they would reply. Silver thought this was a waste of her time, but then her quilava uncovered something sparkling, and placed it into his rival's hand She picked it up, and held it to the light. "_What? How did she find a GOLD NUGGET in this pathetic excuse for a tower?" _As soon as she saw him, a smirk stretched across her face. She held the gold nugget in her palm, and cocked her head. Silver personally thought she looked like his father's Persian whenever he found something shiny. The gleam in her eyes, the satisfied smirk… fair to say, it was annoying. "So what? You found a gold piece. It doesn't mean anything." She looked at him, and then wrote something down. "**You know, being kind to your pokemon has its benefits. Loosen up, Silvy ;)"** He glared at her. "Whatever. I challenge you..." Before he could finish that sentence, her quilava stepped forward. He sent out his Croconaw, and the battle began.

Kotone shook her head at Starfire. She knew that she wanted to attack Silver, and as funny as that would be, it would not look good on her record, which was bad enough already. Instead, she nodded towards Queen, and she stepped forward. "Water gun on that… thing." Queen growled, and Kotone lifted her lip up high enough to see her fangs. Queen raced forward, running through the stream of water, and then delivered a series of vicious kicks. Panting, Queen turned around to face Kotone. Kotone smiled at her, and Queen perked up. With newfound energy, Queen shot a small spike loaded with poison at the croconaw, and while it was poisoned, began scratching at him. The croconaw groaned, but was too weak to get back up. Kotone frowned, seeing as Silver wasn't even bothering to help his croconaw. After petting Queen, she went over to the croconaw and sprayed an antidote on the poisoned wound. After spraying on a potion, she petted the croconaw. It stayed still and tried to soak up the attention as much as he could, and sighed softly. Recalling his Pokémon, Silver sent out his gastly. The pokemon screeched at Queen, and she froze, too scared to come back to Kotone. Kotone frowned, and then nodded at Queen. Queen shot a small barb at the gastly, which didn't hurt the gastly much. Meanwhile, Queen was tired, and only knew one move that could hit gastly. Kotone was panicking. There was no way to switch Queen out herself, and Kotone wasn't fond of making Pokémon fight until they fainted. She growled, and nodded at Cream. Cream stepped forward, and pushed the petrified Queen away. A series of small, red lights shot out form her eyes and hit the gastly, forcing it to become solid. Lunging forward, Cream slammed into the gastly, who was still trying to get used to being solid. While it floundered on the ground, Cream swiped at it until it was too tired to fight, and it closed its eyes, fainted. Recalling his pokemon, Silver sent out his zubat, which let out a cry. Kotone looked happy. "_I think it would be funny to send out my guest star…" _and she whistled_. _A green zubat flew out of nowhere, and landed on Kotone's arm. The zubat perched on Kotone's arm was giving off a light that sparkled, and everybody stared. Silver's zubat seemed to be infatuated, and so Lucky, the shiny zubat, flew forwards and bit the other zubat. Sucking out some of his energy, she flew away. The zubat was too busy staring at this strange new zubat, and didn't dodge. "Snap out of it, you miserable Pokémon!" Lucky flew in again, and then slammed into the zubat. The zubat was tired, but didn't seem to care that he was being beaten up. Lucky slammed into him for the last time, and then flew off. "Bye Kotone! Glad I could help!" Silver growled, and then sent out a magnimite. Starfire stepped forward, and rolled into the Pokémon. A critical hit and the magnimite fainted. "Whatever. Weak people like you sometimes do ok under pressure." Kotone rolled her eyes. When he left, she was the only person still in the tower. Stepping forward, the ground caved in under her, before Kotone could even scream.

DUN DUN DUH!

Starfire: level 26 quilava, female

Skydance: level 25 pidgeotto, female

Cream: level 25 furret, female

Queen: level 25 nidorina


	13. Chapter 13: Exploring the Basement

I don't own pokemon. As always, thanks to the awesome Sapphiet for reviewing constantly.

Kotone opened her eyes and found herself covered in rubble. She coughed once. "Damn," she groaned. There was a throbbing pain in the back of her head, and her left arm and right wrist were on fire. She couldn't feel her legs. Lifting an arm, she hissed as white hot needles shot through her arm. Kotone frowned. It was probably broken. Kotone sighed. "I really don't want to do this, but…" she closed her eyes, and a soft blue glow surrounded her as the air hummed with power. The rubble covering her was raised into the air, and then dropped a few feet away from her. She looked down at her legs. They were cut and bleeding, and her left leg was at an awkward angle. Touching it gently, she grit her teeth and a hiss came out. "_Dislocated, but I could probably fix it…"_ she trailed off as Cream scampered up to her, eyes round with concern. "Kotone! You're hurt! There's no way out! I even checked!"  "Where is everyone else?" Cream looked at her. When you fell, the others went to go get help. They've been gone for half an hour now." Kotone nodded. "Cream, can you find my bag?" Cream nodded, and came back a few minutes later with her dirty, but still intact, bag.

Meanwhile…

"Help! Our trainer fell through the floor and she's hurt!" called Starfire. A woman came out of her house and saw the quilava and a nidorina outside, racing about frantically. "Poor Pokémon, are you lost? Come inside." Starfire looked at the woman, and waved her front paws frantically. "I'm not lost! Grr! Stupid humans, why can't you understand us?" Skydance flew down, and turned to the distraught quilava. "Starfire, we should be going now. Kotone's in trouble and these people aren't going to help." Starfire nodded, and then asked, "Why are you so calm?" Skydance shrugged. "Actually, I was panicking at first. Then somebody hit me with a tranquilizer, but I created an uproar, so I'm just kinda sleepy and calmer." Queen groaned. "Nice story, but Kotone is in DANGER!" The three Pokémon raced off towards the Burned Tower.

Kotone finished wrapping up her cuts, and then turned her attention towards her arms. "_Poultice for healing broken bones: cheri for numbing, pecha for anti-infection, oran for a faster recovery. Mix with mago berry flower and keep on for 3 days."_ A closer examination of her wrist showed that it was just fractured, and Cream came back with the wood needed to make a splint. After tending to her arm, Kotone turned towards Cream. "Cream, I'm going to need you to push my leg back into place. I'm probably going to yell, but don't stop. You have to do this, or I'm not going to be able to walk right." Cream nodded, and then steeled her nerves. Lifting Kotone's leg, she held it steady. Kotone gritted her teeth. "On three. One, two, three!" Cream clicked her leg back in place, and Kotone bit her lip until the blood ran down her chin. Shakily, she got up, and looked at Cream. "Come on Cream, we're getting out of here."Cream pressed against her, and she began exploring the hidden basement. As they walked, Kotone considered levitating herself and Cream up through the gap in the floor, but she had spent too much energy dressing her wounds using telekinesis. She had been feeling a chill for a while, and felt like someone was following her. Meanwhile, the strange power she had felt was getting stronger by the minute, and she could sense other presences as well. When she heard whispering, she immediately realized what was going on. "Cream, foresight!" Red lights flooded the room, making the hundreds of gastly visible. Kotone's hand shot up to her neck, and she touched the glittering stone hanging by a silver thread. Instantly, blue-black flames flickered to life around Kotone, crackling and snapping. When a gastly got too close, the flames melted some it and left black goo on the floor. They hissed in pain. "Stay back! Or all of you will end up like that!" To prove her point, her aura flared even brighter, flooding the room with color. The gastly hissed again. "Stop! We won't eat your soul if you don't melt us!" Kotone smiled. "Good. Now that we aren't going to kill each other, please tell me what is disturbing you." The gastly blinked in surprise. "You realized something was wrong? Now we can't eat you. Obviously you are the chosen." Kotone looked at them. She was sure they were mad. "Why am I chosen?" The gastly sighed. "The masters of this tower, the legendary beasts, came here about fifty years ago. They fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up, even though they kept trying. We think there's a seal binding them, keeping them asleep. Please break the seal!" Kotone nodded. "I'll do the best I can. Show me the way."

They led her to a hidden room, where three large Pokémon slept. The language of the unown floated in the air, and the gastly backed up. "This is as far as we can go," they whispered. Kotone dipped her head, and she went in. Cream sniffed at the sleeping Pokémon closest to them. Kotone put her hand on Suicune first, and the words of power hummed even brighter, as ghostly words appeared above Kotone as well. There was a flash, and Suicune stirred, getting up. It locked eyes with Kotone. "Thank you," it rumbled, quite as a breeze. It ran up the stairs, and left without looking back. Kotone repeated the process with Entei, and Enti got up, roared, and left. Finally, Kotone put her hand on Raikou, and it got up. It looked at her with stormy gray eyes, and dipped its head. As it went up the stairway, it turned, and looked at Kotone. "Trainer, I will be waiting. Until then, farewell." Raikou raced up the stairs and was gone as well. Kotone stared. "Did I just get challenged for a battle with RAIKOU? Oh well, I guess our job is done here." Cream trilled her agreement, and the two went up the stairs together.

When they reached the end, they found a Suicune shaped hole in the wall. Stepping through, they found themselves on the main floor of Burned Tower. Starfire and Skydance raced in, followed by Queen. "KOTONE! What are you thinking! You're hurt! This is no time to be climbing towers and smashing holes in the wall!" Kotone laughed. "It's nice to see you too, you guys." Even though she was trying to be cheerful, her aura had turned pale and was flickering in and out of existence. The last thing she murmured before passing out was, "Guess I'm stuck in Ecreateak for a while, hmm?"

Kotone woke up in a bed at 12:00 p.m. Her Pokémon came into the room, Starfire carrying a plate on her back loaded with berries, herbs, roots, and nuts. The rest of her team was carrying something else. Queen was carrying a cup of coffee in her paws, Cream had a new bag, and Skydance brought her a bunch of flowers. "It's good to see you awake, so hurry up and eat something," said Skydance from around a mouthful of flowers. Kotone looked at the plate of food Starfire brought. "I can't eat all of that; you guys are going to have to share it with me." She smiled at them. "You guys are so sweet, this is more than any human friend would do for me. But Cream, you didn't steal that bag, right?" Cream sniffed. "I took some of the money from your bag, and went to a store. I managed to find this one, and put the money on the counter and ran off. So it's not stealing, I paid for it. 30.99 plus tax." Kotone laughed. "Thanks. And Queen… is that coffee?"

Starfire: same level as last time

Skydance: same again

Cream: ditto.

Queen: ditto


	14. Chapter 14: The Foggy Path of the Future

It took a LOT of persuading to get Nurse Joy to let her out of the hospital ward. Enraged, Kotone managed to persuade a chansey to give her an egg, even though chansey eggs weren't for humans. But Kotone wasn't entirely human, so it cured her completely. Nurse Joy, although suspicious of Kotone's sudden recovery, had no choice but to let her out seeing that she was perfectly fine.

Kotone ran out of the Pokémon center, panting. "Thank Arceus I'm out of there!" Her Pokémon trilled their agreement. "Ok guys! I'm going to battle Morty today!" Starfire squeaked a war cry, and Skydance flew up a couple of feet, cawing happily. Kotone looked at her pokegear and paled. "NO way…" Her Pokémon looked at her, confused. "Nurse Joy kept me in there for an entire week! This is an outrage!" Running off towards the gym, she shouted, "I must make up lost time!"

Kotone stared at the gym in front of her, noticing the dark abyss and the trainers who seemed to be floating above it. Cream stepped forward, and rays of red light pulsed out from her body. Suddenly, a ghostly red path was visible. Kotone smiled. "Heh, now that we don't have to randomly blunder around…we can save more time." Stepping on to the path, she began the long walk forward.

"Are you lost?" An old woman with candles strapped to her head asked. Kotone shook her head, but the woman rambled on. "If you are lost, then battle me. I can show you the way!" Kotone rolled her eyes, and Starfire stepped forward. The gastly the old woman sent out were no match for Starfire, and in a matter of minutes the battle was over. "The path is… right in front of you!" Kotone snorted and continued on.

"Hello. I am Morty, the gym leader here. The Kimono Girls said that Ho-Oh's chosen one is currently walking the earth. I believe it is me. I challenge you to a battle!" Kotone nodded, and Cream stepped forward. "_A normal type Pokémon? I wonder what this girl is up to. I can't read her mind, either. She's blocking me off with no effort, and there is something that gives off a feeling of power. I can sense three things, one on her neck, and two on her wrists."_

While Morty was lost in thought, Cream gave off a red light, and his haunter was visible to the naked eye.Slamming into the confused haunter, who wasn't sure what to do without his trainer, Cream began a series of attacks. Morty snapped out of his thoughts as his haunter let out an agonized moan and fainted. He sent out another haunter, this time fully immersed in the battle. "Hypnosis." Soft, glowing rings were emitted from the haunter's eyes, accompanied with sleepy music. Cream yawned, and fell asleep. Skydance stepped up, and Kotone picked up the sleeping Cream. Flapping her wings, she cawed, a twister tearing into the haunter, who cringed. Flapping her wings, a gust of wind tore at the battered haunter, fainting it. Morty sent out a gastly, who shrilled, causing Skydance to tremble, paralyzed with fear. Kotone picked up the scared Skydance. When the gastly glared at her, she returned the glare. The gastly trembled. This girl was scarier than his opponents! Starfire stepped up, and a flame wheel and ember combination was enough to knock out gastly.

Morty looked at her. "You are quite strong, to get this far. Gengar, go!" The ghost type grinned. Kotone shot him a glare. "_You're the fourth gym leader! I didn't expect to see a gengar!"_ A grin stretched across her face. Starfire, reading her expression, grinned as well. Starfire raced forward, rolling into the gengar at top speed. The hurt gengar stood up, shaking slightly. "Curse." The gengar stuck a pin into its body, wincing slightly. A ghostly pin stuck itself in Starfire, and she wailed. Kotone hissed as the pain traveled across to her. Recalling Starfire, she nodded to Queen, who raced forward, claws glowing with ghostly black light. The gengar hissed as the last of its energy was ripped away in a critical hit.

Morty looked shocked. "I-I lost. So that means… I'm not the chosen one?" Kotone just stood there. "_There there, Mr. Narcissist. You just figured out you aren't the center of the universe. It's a tough lesson. Now give me my badge." _He handed her the Fog Badge, which she placed in her badge case. Taking the warp panel back, she left the gym.

Kotone decided to pay a visit to Bell Tower, which she had completely forgotten about. Walking in, a monk stopped her. "I'm sorry; the Bell Tower is not open to the public. Only Ho-Oh's chosen are allowed in." Kotone sighed and walked out. Climbing the building, she jumped off at Bellchime Trail. She gasped. It was so peaceful… even though it was summer; the trees were covered in the splendid leaves of fall. Hearing the gate open, she scrambled up the building and dropped back into Ecruteak City.

Kotone stopped, puzzled. There was a fork in the road, one path leading to Mahogany, another leading to Olivine and Cianwood. She frowned. "Which way should I go?" Her Pokémon looked at her. "Left," Starfire decided. Kotone nodded, and headed off towards Olivine City. On the way, she bumped into an Ace Trainer. "Hey you! Battle me!" He sent out an eevee, who gave a weak cry. Kotone frowned. "_This guy… is even worse than Silver is."_ The eevee stood, facing Skydance. In a moment, it was over. The Ace Trainer scowled. "Useless Pokémon. Can't even beat a pidgeotto." He pulled out a pokeball, and the eevee was surrounded in a blue glow as he released it. The eevee whimpered, and ran up to him. It looked at him with pleading eyes, and when he ignored her and kept walking, she let out a soft whine, and walked off, ears and tail drooping. Kotone's heart twisted painfully, and she came up to the eevee. "Do you need somewhere to stay?" The eevee looked at her sadly. "Eevee tried hard for her master. Eevee miss Master already." Kotone felt terrible for the eevee. "Do you need help?" The eevee looked at her, perking up a bit. "Eevee join girl, make herself strong. Then Master will want Eevee back." Kotone honestly wanted to do a test on the ace trainer to find out what made his eevee so loyal even when he released her. Picking up eevee, she continued walking to Olivine. She stopped, and then looked at eevee. "I'm going to call you Vee. Is that okay?" The eevee nodded.

Kotone battled with Vee, allowing her to get stronger and stronger. Eventually, she ended up teaching Vee shadow ball, so that Vee had an advantage against the psychics that kept popping up everywhere. Finally, she reached Olivine, and bumped into a certain rival of hers. "Oh, it's you. Don't look so alarmed, I have no time for weaklings. Speaking of weaklings, the gym leader is tending to some sick Pokémon at the lighthouse. If a Pokémon can't battle, let it go!" The last comment earned Silver a slap across the face, and Kotone ran to the lighthouse.

Battling her way through the trainers of the lighthouse, Kotone ended up on the observatory, where a girl a couple years older than her was mopping a towel across an ampharos' forehead. She stood there awkwardly, until the girl looked up. "Hello. My name is Jasmine. I'm sorry; I can't take any gym battles until Amphy here gets better. The doctor says she has two months left if she isn't treated." She sobbed. "I'll get the medicine." Kotone surprised herself when she whispered her promise. With that, she took the elevator down, and went to catch herself a gyrados from the Lake of Rage.

When she went outside, she noticed the mass of people. "I can't believe it! Some hotshot trainer from Sinnoh has come here!" Kotone pushed through the crowd, completely ignoring the Rich Kid who was soaking up the attention. A gloved hand was suddenly on her shoulder. "Hey, that's not nice to ignore a celebrity," the Rich Kid was smiling at her. "Or do you think you're too good to care? If so, I challenge you to a battle!" Kotone tried to keep going, but he gripped her shoulder tighter. "Battle woman. Or are you too stupid to understand?" Kotone sighed. There was no way around it. She nodded to Starfire, who stepped forward. The rich kid smirked. "Go empoleon." Starfire lunged, but was fainted with one Hydro Pump. The same happened to the rest of her team, and Kotone was forced to send out Vee. A metal claw ripped into Vee, and she shrieked. Kotone bit her tongue to stop herself from screaming. It hurt bad to see her team crushed like this. Vee was shaking, trembling on the ground, bleeding badly. Kotone recalled Vee, and headed towards the Pokémon center. "Ha! Seems you aren't too good of a trainer after all! You should quit, and stop trying!" He laughed, and the crowd laughed with him. Kotone grit her teeth, and headed into the Pokémon center. Once her Pokémon were fully healed, she left them in their pokeballs, too ashamed to talk to them. "_I let you down,"_ she thought as she ran, running all the way to Mahogany as tears streamed down her face. She collapsed in Mt. Mortar, falling into one of the many pools there. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed, nails digging into her skin, blood mixing with tears and dirt. "_You're worthless, you little brat. You're a weakling. Nobody would ever love you. Why don't you just disappear, and relieve us of the burden?" _Kotone cried even harder, her facade completely forgotten. Finally, the effects from her Pokémon fainting caught up to her, and she passed out. "_As soon as I finish my promise to Mother, as soon as Team Rocket is gone, they'll have their wish granted. Kotone Adonis will disappear from Johto forever." _

Slowly, the wild Pokémon crept up to the shaking girl. Picking her up, they carried her deep within the cave, where no human had ever been before.

Starfire: level 29

Skydance: level 28

Queen: level 27

Vee: level 20

Cream: level 27


	15. Chapter 15: Wrath of Kotone, part 1

This will probably be my last post for a while. I have a mid-term coming up, and my brain will take a while to re-wire after overuse.

Kotone woke up deep within a cave. If she listened closely, she could hear the distant roars of a waterfall up ahead. She groaned.

Crawling over to a puddle, she studied her reflection. Her eyes had turned dull and grey. Kotone sighed. The issue with keeping her emotions under restraint was that it had nasty side effects, like her color changing eyes. Her arms had some pretty nasty scratches, and her clothes were muddy and torn.

Luckily, her bag had somehow managed to save itself, and she pulled out her change of clothes. It was a beautiful white dress, light and durable. At the front was a patch of red, made from polished mother of pearl. Kotone blinked. Last she had checked it had been more of a tutu, instead of a dress. Had it sensed her growing up since the last time she had worn it? It was quite possible, considering the one who made it.

After changing into the dress and washing the mud off her body, she picked up her belt and re-attached it around her waist. She sighed, a pang of guilt going through her. Releasing her Pokémon, she braced herself for yet another guilt trip. Instead, she got a dozen apologies. "Kotone, we're so sorry we failed!" Cream was looking at her, eyes wide with distress.

Kotone blinked. She was the one who should be apologizing; it was her who got them hurt. Queen growled. "When I get my hands on that human, he's going to regret the day he messed with us." Kotone looked at them sadly.

"So you're not angry?" Her voice was barely audible.

It was Starfire who spoke. "Of course not, it's not your fault that guy forced you to battling him. And Queen's right, the next time we see him, we'll battle with **him **instead."

Kotone paled. "We need to get the medicine for Jasmine and Amphy. The reason we're heading to Mahogany is to catch a gyrados."

Her pokemon looked shocked at the news. Gyrados were hard to train. The only way to tame one was to gain its respect or train it from a magicarp, both were equally as hard. Nonetheless, they nodded and followed Kotone out of Mt. Mortar.

When Kotone reached Mahogany, the first thing she noticed was the high pitched buzzing coming from a little shop. She covered her ears, and winced. Starfire looked confused, and Skydance was flying about nervously. Cream and Queen looked strangely bloodthirsty, and Vee kept on glowing every now and then.

A strange man came up to Kotone, shouting, "All is lost! All of the gyrados are rampaging, and some strange guy is trying to stop them!" Kotone blinked. Gyrados would rampage occasionally, the worst being two years ago when somebody canceled the Pokémon Music radio channel. But there was something fishy about so many rampaging at once…

Running through Route 43, Kotone was suddenly hit by a pokeball. She stopped, growling and rubbing her head. She could her some Youngsters crashing through the grass. "Where'd it go? Where's that strange gardivior?" Kotone sighed, and continued onwards.

The rain was pouring, and in the middle of the lake was a large, angry red gyrados. It thrashed about, causing very large waves to form in the lake and crash against the shore. Kotone frowned. The gyrados looked confused, and Kotone was worried it would hurt itself thrashing around. Recalling her Pokémon, she dove into the water and swam to an uprooted tree, fighting against the waves.

Pulling herself up on to the tree, Kotone sent out Skydance. Skydance trilled, and dove at the gyrados, creating gusts of wind that battered the gyrados. The gyrados looked unimpressed, and blew a strange glowing fire at the tiny bird. Ducking, Skydance trilled and flew in close, smacking the gyrados with her wings. The gyrados roared, and thrashed its tail. Summoning up a twister, it launched it at Skydance, who dodged and retaliated with her own twister. Skydance swooped in and smacked the gyrados again, trying to wear it down enough for Kotone to catch it.

The battle went on for a few minutes, and Kotone recalled Skydance, sending out Queen. Queen sat in Kotone's lap, shooting a barrage of poison-covered spikes at her opponent. The gyrados roared, poisoned. Kotone smiled, and then sent out Vee. Vee gathered up a swirling ball of shadows, flinging it at the gyrados.

The gyrados roared, but it was tiring. She didn't want to keep fighting, she just wanted to swim back under the water and feed on river plants. One minute, she had been a magicarp, perfectly content with swimming about and eating algae. The next minute, she was in a new body and had a headache. To add insult to injury, she was being beaten by shadowy globs of stuff. So when the ultra ball came flying at her, she didn't even fight.

Kotone caught the ball before it could fall under the water. Now that the gyrados was caught, the waves had subsided and she had an easy swim back to shore.

Lance was shocked by the girl's stupidity and bravery. She had jumped into the water, even though it was a job normally done by Pokémon. She had also battled and caught a dragon without its permission, but he had to admit she had potential. He decided that once he found out where Team Rocket was hiding, he would try to get her to help.

Kotone came back to Mahogany, fuming. After calming the gyrados down, and naming her Bellatona, she had taught the confused Pokémon to get used to her new body. After doing the empathy bond, she had learned the details behind her forced evolving, and was furious. Yet another strange man came up to her, this time wearing a strange outfit and a cape. "I'm Lance, and recently I was investigating the strange radio waves around here. I think I now who was behind this, and where they are. Will you help me?" Kotone nodded. This would be a lot of fun.

"Hyper Beam!" The dragonite who had been following Lance blasted the store owner into a wall. Lance walked over towards a strange golden cabinet, and pushed it over. Underneath, there was a set of stairs. "No! Don't go under there!" The man who got pushed into a wall yelled. Lance smirked, and walked down the stairs, Kotone following.

Bellatona had been allowed out, as were the rest of her Pokémon. Kotone was examining a Persian statue. Something about it creeped her out. Lance looked at her. "We should split up to cover more ground." Kotone shrugged. Good. Now she could get away with unneeded violence towards the Rocket grunts that were sure to pop up. As soon as she walked in front of a statue, an alarm blared, and two Rocket grunts appeared. "Hey you! Get out of here!" Kotone looked at them. "Make me," she mouthed.

Kotone stood there calmly, wiping the blood off her hand. The Rocket grunts had been foolish to think they could stop her. They lay in a heap on the floor, unconscious. A broken nose, a couple of broken bones, and a couple teeth knocked out would teach them.

She moved on, a bored look on her face. The Persians were security cameras, and without a remote, you wouldn't be able to shut them off. Not. She found a switch, pulled out a connecting wire, and plugged in her pokegear to the statue. Typing madly, she bypassed the security codes, shutting off the statues. Kotone sighed. Now she would have to wait for a Rocket grunt to find her.

Silver slipped into the Rocket Headquarters. He had finally managed to track them down, and then it would be over. Or so he thought. He heard a roar, and then the sound of waves and screaming people. Rushing towards the noise, he saw one of the most frightening scenes in his life. Kotone was seated on the head of a red sparkling gyrados, and her newly evolved Skydance and Starfire were wrecking the headquarters.

While Skydance held back the grunt's Pokémon, Kotone was mercilessly beating the Rocket grunts. She had jumped off the gyrados' head, and was advancing towards a room. The rocket grunts were blocking the way. They said something, and Kotone smiled and shook her head. When they lunged at her, she dodged, jumped into the air, flipped, and landed by kicking her feet into the male grunt's chest. The female grunt charged at her, gun at the ready. Kotone looked at her with a bored look on her face. The gun was wrenched out of the grunt's hand, and crumpled into a ball. Kotone studied her nails as the grunt paled and backed off. Silver decided it was best not to mess with Kotone at the moment.

Kotone barged into the room, finding a surprised looking woman who looked a lot like Silver and a rocket grunt. The woman laughed. "I'm surprised you made it this far. Well, I won't let you get any farther. You can't beat two of us! I, Ariana, challenge you!" Ariana turned towards the rocket grunt. "Get over here!" The rocket grunt scurried over, and Kotone nodded towards Cream and Starfire.

After beating the two of them, Ariana laughed. "We're done here anyways. But you won't be able to stop us if you can't get the code!" She then turned around and backed off. The grunt ran out of the room. He had seen what she had done to the other grunts, and he was lucky to get away unscathed.

Kotone, after beating another executive named Petrel, went to the generator, only to find it blocked by a metal door with a voice password. Kotone sighed, and pulled the device apart. After fiddling with the wires, the door hummed. "Voice recognition confirmed. Please enter, Master." Kotone smirked at her own little personal touch, and went in.

Six electrode were hooked up to a machine, powering it with their Charge. Lance had fainted two of them, and was working on the third. "You came just in time! Can you faint the other three? I wouldn't want to do it; it's just that the machine has to be stopped that way. Kotone pulled out three pokeballs, and caught the electrode. Releasing them, the generator stopped. Lance smiled. "Seems there was another way. Good job." Kotone sighed. Alarms began to blare. "Self destruct in 30 seconds. 29, 28..." Kotone recalled her Pokémon and ran.

Everybody ran out of the Headquarters, and the entire place blew up, gift shop and all. A rack of hair dye exploded, splattering platinum blonde dye all over Kotone. She swore under her breath, and ran off to take a shower.


	16. Chapter 16:Random Events and Badges

For those of you who wonder why I keep saying Kotone isn't human.

**Scientists Uncover the Mystery of Alph.**

A month ago, a team of archaeologists uncovered the burial chamber of the queens. The remains were sent to a lab for testing. The results show that the people of Alph were related to the lucario and ralts line, and are only close relatives of humans.

The bodies of the Alphians were wired differently, every muscle and organ wired for max performance. This gave them better endurance, higher strength, and quicker reflexes than the majority of humans. The average Alphian stood 6-7 feet tall, with a few standing at 8 feet tall.

CAT scans were used to recreate what an Alphian might look like. They had large, slanted eyes, and long, sharp canine teeth. A different vocal structure probably allowed for mimicry of Pokémon cries. The Alphians were naturally very slim.

Even with all these attributes, the Alphians completely disappeared, a mystey until now. Later remains show that the Alphians were wiped out by a plague carried by rattata, which humans are immune to. They left without a trace, and mystery still surrounds them to this day.

Next page: Indigo Tournament coming up in September. Reporter Valorie gives us a look at possible candidates.

Kotone looked up from the newspaper she was reading. "Rubbish. It's not mimicry. And they didn't completely die out. Come on, Cianwood isn't too far away." Her Pokémon nodded, and Kotone walked out of the Pokémon Center.

Reaching the beach, Kotone released Bellatone from her pokeball. Bellatona roared, and then slipped into the water. Kotone jumped up, finding footholds between chinks in scales. She jumped on to Bellatona's head, where she sat behind the crest on Bellatona's forehead. Bellatona then allowed the rest of her team to mount, and then swam off.

For the beginning of the trip, they were completely alone. That is, until a swimmer spotted Kotone perched on Bellatona. It was really hard to hide an 11 foot tall red gyrados that glittered. "Hey you there! Battle me!" Kotone obliged, and recalled her Pokémon, allowing Bellatona to fight without throwing them off. The swimmer sent out a tentacruel, who cowered when he saw his opponent. Bellatona lunged forward, riding on a 10 foot wave. Kotone clung on to the crest, and let out a cheer as Bellatona plunged forward.

When the battle was over, part of the ocean was covered in purple fire that burned even on water. Kotone gave Bellatona a teasing look. "I think we used Dragon Rage a little too much, no?"

Bellatona frowned. "No. That tentacruel deserved it."

Kotone shrugged, and they continued onwards. "If you think so."

When they reached Cianwood, the neighboring route was mostly covered in purple flames. Kotone got off Bellatona, and let out the rest of the team. Rushing to the pharmacy, Kotone shoved the note into the cashier's hand. **The ampharos in Olivine is sick, and needs medicine fast. **The cashier looked at the note, a worried frown sneaking across his face. "I have just the thing. Take this Secret Potion, and hurry." Kotone nodded, and raced out of the pharmacy.

Kotone raced to the lighthouse, worried sick while the elevator played annoyingly cheerful music. Holding the precious bag in her hands, she handed it to Jasmine, who looked sick and pale herself. When she saw the medicine, Jasmine looked happy. "Thank you so much! I really hope it's not too late…" Feeding Amphy the medicine caused it to stop coughing, although it still looked sickly. Jasmine frowned. "She still looks sick." Kotone dug in her bag, and pulled out a small gray scale. Jasmine looked at the scale, and then gasped. "It's a gabite scale! But those are so rare, are you sure about giving me this?" Kotone pulled out an entire bag full in reply.

As she walked towards the gym, Kotone felt somebody grab her shoulder. The person was a lass, who looked relieved. "Thank you for helping Amphy, we were all worried." Kotone rolled her eyes. "_So why didn't you do anything about it?"_

The gym was an odd place, somewhere in between Whitney's gym and Byron's in decour. Kotone walked up to Jasmine, who looked at her. "I-I'm Jasmine the leader here. I use the steel type. I-I'll show you the power of steel!" Kotone nodded towards Starfire, who roared a challenge. The typhlosion stared at her opponent, a much smaller magnimite. Running at full speed, Starfire allowed the collar of flames around her neck to intensify, burning the magnimite and fainting it. Jasmine sent out a steelix, who glared at Starfire, who glared back. "Rock Throw!" Starfire leaped out of the way, and the large boulder nearly hit Kotone.

"YOU IDIOT! You could have killed Kotone!" Starfire screeched. Her collar glowed brighter, and globs of fire were launched from her back, spewing everywhere but where the trainers stood. The metal gym began to melt, and the area around Starfire was beginning to melt at an incredible rate. Charging forward, Starfire rolled into a ball, leaving a swath of molten iron in her wake, and slammed into the steelix, fainting it.

Jasmine sent out another magnimite, who lasted about 50 seconds against the angry Starfire. When the gym match was over, the entire gym was at least half melted, and several places were ready to collapse. "Good job. You defeated me. Although, next time, please restrain your typhlosion." Kotone accepted the badge, and had Bellatona douse the flames. She then left the gym, and Jasmine sighed. "No wonder those two warned me. That girl is crazy."

Kotone made it to the beach, where she bumped into a certain trainer. She sighed. "_Here we go again."_ Silver glared at her. "Do you even watch where you're going?" Kotone glared back. "_Do you?"_ He shrugged. "Whatever. I challenge you to battle!" Kotone nodded to Starfire, who stepped forward, glaring. "What did you do to your quilava to make it so big?" This was a sincere question, and Silver looked genuinely confused. Kotone looked at Starfire. It was a valid question, as Starfire didn't have the slabs of fat most domestic typhlosion had. She looked more like her long-gone wild cousins, who remained as lithe as their pre -evolutions. Kotone handed Silver a note. **She evolved. I'm really not sure why she's so thin though.**

Silver read the note. "Whatever. Feraligatr, bite!" The big blue reptile moved faster than one would expect it to, and clamped his jaws around Starfire, who hissed and retaliated by letting a torrent of stars shoot out her mouth, slicing into Feraligatr's skin. He roared in pain, and Starfire squirmed loose and turned to face him. Globs of lava shot out from her collar, hitting feraligatr as well as everything within five feet. Where the lava hit the sand, areas of smooth glass were formed. From the sidelines, Cream cheered, and Vee jumped up and down.

"Go Starfire! You can do it!"  Kotone however, wasn't so sure. Starfire was still tired from melting the gym, and her stomach was bleeding and was deeper than it looked. It was killing Kotone, so she shook her head slightly. Starfire paused, and switched out with Skydance. Skydance trilled, and flew up, hiding by flying beneath the sun. Feraligatr paused, trying to figure out how to hit his opponent. A dark spot came closer and closer, and Skydance rocketed into view, breaking the sound barrier as she dropped, talons ready. Raking her talons across Feraligatr, Skydance pulled up and flew back to Kotone, her magnificent plumage in full view. Feraligatr collapsed, and got up again, shaking badly but determined to go down fighting.

Much to Kotone's surprise, Silver recalled his Pokémon and sent out a golbat. Silver then scanned the sky, as if trying to make sure a certain shiny zubat wasn't in the area. The golbat groaned. "Why do we have to fight here? I don't like the sun." 

Vee started bouncing up and down. "I wanna battle the golbat! Please Kotone?" Kotone shrugged, and Vee stepped forward. "Yay! You're going down, batty." She raised her paw, and a ball of swirling, crackling shadows formed. Making a swiping motion, Vee directed the ball towards Golbat. The golbat hissed, and swiped at Vee, knocking her into the ocean.

Kotone's mouth opened in a soundless scream, and she ran in after Vee, who had been carried away and was madly flailing her paws and wailing. Swimming out to Vee, Kotone dragged her back to shore and began rubbing her chest in an effort to get her breathing again. Vee twitched, coughing up a mouthful of water. Kotone sighed in relief, and hugged Vee. Queen stepped forward, but Silver huffed. "You forfeited the match, which means I won."

Kotone shrugged, and handed him a wad of cash. Picking up Vee, she stopped when Vee began to glow. "Y-You forfeited the match to save me. Thank you." The light grew brighter, and when it was gone Vee had changed. Her fur was now shorter, and was a light purple. Her body had slimmed, and her short legs had been replaced by slimmer legs and small dainty paws. She had two long tails and a bright ruby on her forehead. Vee had evolved into an espeon. Kotone gasped. If memory served, espeon only evolved out of loyalty and love towards their trainer. _"I feel… honored." _

Jumping on Bellatona, the team headed off towards Cianwood.

Starfire: level 37 typhlosion

Skydance: level 36 pidgeot

Cream: level 35 furret

Queen: level 35 nidorina

Vee: level 34 espeon


	17. Chapter 17: Yet Another Trashed Gym

And as always, his annoying rival was right. Although he was reluctant to admit it, Silver had to admit being kind to his Pokémon had its benefits. For one, they were trying harder in battles, which made it even easier to crush everybody in his way- except for her and that dragon tamer Lance. Another benefit was that it helped ease the loneliness he had felt for a while slightly.

With a start, Silver realized that he had never heard anybody refer to his rival by name. He was pretty sure she had told him, but he hadn't bothered remembering it. It was pretty easy to track her progress however. Look for a disaster in the news, and his rival was probably behind it. That girl had the scariest look in her eyes sometimes…Shaking his head, he headed on towards Mahogany Town.

Kotone had made it to Cianwood with no problem. Riding an 11 foot tall gyrados had its benefits. The trainers had learned that Bellatona was not to be messed with, and the local Pokémon were terrified of her. Recalling Bellatona, Kotone stepped into the gym. She sincerely hoped she didn't destroy another gym.

The Black Belts in the gym were seriously starting to get on Kotone's nerves. For the most part, they were all show and nothing to back it up. Skydance had swept the majority of their Pokémon, and Vee wiped the floor with the rest of them. Kotone was willing to bet 100 poke she could judo flip the Black Belt with one hand, with minimal damage to herself.

Kotone was definitely annoyed with this gym. The gym leader seemed too intent on meditating with a waterfall pounding down on him, and Kotone was about ready to have her Pokémon trash the gym to get his attention. Instead, she pulled the heavy lever with one hand, diverting the water into the air. Chuck looked confused as why the water had disappeared, and Kotone hopped off the rail she was perched on and landed into the battling arena.

"I'm Chuck, the gym leader here. Be prepared to face the might of my Pokémon!"

Vee stepped forward. "_Bring it on! Try to beat us!"_ Ever since Vee had evolved, she had served as Kotone's voice. Kotone still preferred to stay silent, even with Vee speaking for her through telepathy.

The first pokemon Chuck sent out was a primeape, who laughed when he saw his opponent. "How am I supposed to battle a little miss like you?"

Vee smirked and she replied, "You will battle me. Try to face this!" The ruby on her forehead began glowing brighter, and her eyes changed from lilac to blue as the primeape was raised into the air and slammed into a wall. He struggled to free himself as the air around Vee distorted, causing the room to move like a mirage in a desert, attacking his mind. Kotone stood and watched; painfully aware of the damage it was causing the fighting type Pokémon. When the primeape had been knocked out, Vee lowered him carefully to the ground.

Chuck frowned. Obviously, this girl was something to be reckoned with. Sending out his strongest Pokémon, a poliwrath, he grinned at the girl.

"Now you will find out the true depth of our might!" Vee however, wasn't impressed. She levitated the fighting/water Pokémon and threw him into the piping system. The poliwrath was so heavy it broke the piping system, causing water to rush forwards. However, the large iron trapdoor kept the water at bay, at least for the moment. "Rock Slide!" Vee countered by levitating the rocks poliwrath summoned, and slamming them into poliwrath. The impact threw him into the trapdoor, breaking the door and causing water to rush forwards, flooding the gym. The poliwrath slumped, fainted.

However, the entire room was flooding, and the Black Belts had already run out of the gym. Chuck grabbed his pokeballs and ran, and Kotone followed suit. The minute they got out, the water burst out of the windows, and doors, shattering them and soaking everybody with a 6 foot wave. Kotone groaned. "_There goes another perfectly good gym… I'm so dead."_

After cleaning up the mess and spending an hour explaining things to the police, Kotone was anxious to get out of Cianwood. Before she could do anything, a Pokémon Maniac ran up to her. "Hey miss! I saw your battle, and you're really strong! I was thinking you could take care of my Pokémon for me!" When Kotone stared at him, his lip trembled. "My sneasel was stolen a couple of days ago by a boy your age with red hair and scary silver eyes. Please take care of shuckle! I don't want to lose him too!" Kotone nodded, and accepted the pokeball. She really needed to have a talk with Silver about taking things…

Even though it would be hypocrisy. Here Kotone was, perched on the roof of the Bell Tower Gate. As soon as the monks switched shifts, she jumped off the roof, landed in Bellchime Trail, and ran over to the brazier where Ho-Oh's Sacred Fire burned. She reached her hand into the brazier, the flames running over her hands but not burning her. It felt like putting your hands near the fire to get warm. Scooping up a handful of ash, Kotone placed it in the bag she kept around her neck. Running over towards the gate, she climbed back up and jumped back down into Ecruteak City before anyone noticed.

Kotone was drawn to the Dance Theater by the sound of yelling. Inside, a rocket grunt was harassing the Kimono Girls. "Hey, those dances you guys do are pretty, but why don't you do something more interesting? Like the hula or something?"

Kotone cleared her throat, and suddenly everybody noticed the silent teen that had crept on the stage. Vee looked at the rocket grunt calmly. _"__Get out of here before she loses her patience. My mistress is a very temperamental person."_

Kotone stared at Vee. "_Since when was I your master?"_

Vee stared back. "_Since now. Just be quiet and act the part."_

Kotone nodded. Her indifferent face shifted into a slightly haughty one.

The grunt snorted. "Just try to stop me."

Vee looked bored. "_Battle or would you rather fight Mistress alone?"_ The grunt charged Kotone, and Vee lifted him into the air and slammed him into a wall. "This is even more fun than doing it with Pokémon!" Vee remarked cheekily. The grunt growled, and got up. He ran off, and Kotone left the Theater as quietly as she had arrived.

Kotone flew to Mahogany on Skydance's back, enjoying the feel of wind on her face. She laughed, and Skydance trilled. "Hang on tight, we're going down!" Skydance dove down, not as fast as she did in battle but fast enough to cause Kotone to cling on tighter.

Landing in Mahogany, Kotone tried to re-adjust her hat, which had flopped down to cover her face. Somehow, the hat had managed to stay on during the ride there. This also left her hair in plain view of everybody. It had been dyed platinum blonde, a light gold with a silvery sheen. Kotone growled, and pushed her hair back under her hat.

She walked past the burnt patch where the Rocket HQ had been, ash still covering everything within a hundred feet. Still fuming about her hair, she headed towards the gym before stopping. "_I haven't eaten anything for the past three days..."_ Kotone turned and ran towards the Lake of Rage.

Picking berries from the forest surrounding the lake, Kotone smiled as Bellatona swam happily in the lake, causing people to stare at the enormous gyarados. One trainer threw a pokeball at her. Kotone froze. "Bellatona, ohmylatiasnodon'tyoudare…" Bellatona frowned, and looked at the offending trainer. Before Kotone could reach her, she opened her mouth and swept her tail towards the pokeball,sending it crashing into the trainer and knocking him out.

Bellatona smirked. "Bellatona used Thrash. It's super effective. Trainer fainted!" She swam over to Kotone. "Come on Kotone. I wouldn't use Dragon Rage on a human… or maybe I would." Kotone just shook her head, smiling. Her Pokémon were even better at trashing things than she was.

I HATE MYSELF FOR FORGETTING ABOUT BELLATONA LAST TIME!

Starfire: level 37

Skydance: level 37

Cream: level 35

Queen: level 36

Vee: level 36

Bellatona: level 35

Temporary Pokémon: Shuckie

Remember: _Italics_ plus underline means Vee is using telepathy.


	18. Chapter 18: Radio Tower

Kotone was seriously fed up with the police. Again, a warning about not causing too much damage, blah blah blah. It was getting to the point where Kotone was seriously considering unleashing a swarm of golbat on the police unit, or sicking Latias or Latios on them. But, she would be in even bigger trouble for those stunts. It wasn't her fault that gyarados were temperamental Pokémon. That trainer shouldn't have thrown a pokeball at Bellatona. It wasn't her fault that the trainer ended up with a concussion.

She headed into the gym, being greeted by a blast of cold air. _"Uh oh…"_ An ICE type gym. She was going to get killed…

Starfire padded by Kotone's side, warming the environment without meaning to. The gym was already showing signs of melting. Kotone hurried on, and made it to Pryce. "I am Pryce, the leader here. I have been battling since before you were born. Do you really wish to face me?" Kotone nodded, her face blank. Pryce sent out a piloswine. "Mud bomb!" A glob of mud flew at Starfire, who hissed as the mud dampened her fire. Kotone winced, feeling the pain of having her energy snuffed out, even though there wasn't a scratch on her. Starfire crouched down, fire raining from her back. The walls began to melt at an incredible rate. Piloswine fainted, unable to take the heat.

Pryce sent out his next Pokémon, a grinning seel. Kotone smiled, and then allowed Cream to take her place. Cream stepped up, knowing exactly what her trainer wanted. Cream reared up on her hind legs, and thunder rumbled. Jagged lightning tore through the roof, sending electricity through the room and fainting the seel. Kotone sighed. There had been enough voltage to stun the seel, making the fainting painless. Although, she didn't realize a hole would be torn through the roof… Kotone sighed again.

If Pryce was angry about the hole in the gym's roof, he didn't show it. He sent out a dewgong, who bayed and opened its mouth. An ice-cold beam of rainbow light shot out of his mouth, sending Cream flying into a nearby ice sculpture. The crash of breaking ice was loud and obvious. Cream scrambled back to her feet, and ran up to the dewgong, punching him across the face. HARD. The attack knocked him backwards. Again, the tinkle of shattered ice could be heard. The dewgong looked tired, and Pryce looked at it with worry. "Rest." The dewgong sighed, and fell asleep, allowing it to recover strength. Cream punched the sleeping dewgong across the face. "Sleep talk." The dewgong muttered something in its sleep, and it opened its mouth. Another rainbow beam hit Cream, sending her flying.  
"Man, I hate rainbows," muttered Cream. Getting up, she summoned another blast of lightning. It hit the sleeping dewgong, fainting it. Pryce stared at the second hole in the ceiling.

"You won. Good job, youngster. I hope you will spend the rest of your career with your partners." He handed her the badge. Kotone sighed. Now to get out of here before the police showed up…

Kotone jumped as her pokegear rang. She hadn't given anybody her number… Grumbling, she opened her pokegear. "Kotone! Listen to the radio!" Professor Elm's voice sounded panicked. "_What, did somebody decide to play Call Me Maybe? Why so panicky?" _She turned the dial, and the radio turned on.

"It's us, the glorious Team Rocket! Giovanni, do you hear us? We're back! After three years, we've come back! Nobody will stop us this time!"

Kotone exchanged a glance with her Pokémon. "Shall we put them in their place?"  Kotone had that glint in her eye, the one that meant a LOT of pain was about to happen. Her Pokémon nodded.

Kotone stood in the Underground Tunnel, standing in front of a mirror. She had put her hair in a high ponytail, and focused on her reflection. The mirror shimmered, and then Kotone's reflection changed. Instead of the tank top and jeans she was wearing, she appeared to be wearing a Team Rocket uniform. Kotone would rather kiss a muk before she actually wore the uniform. However, she didn't mind the high-heels though. Those were rather nice. Looking at her reflection one last time, she applied red lipstick and grey eyeshadow, to accent her emerald eyes and bring out the gold flecks in her eyes. She sighed, and then walked out, Queen following her. She had evolved Queen for the mission, and the nidoqueen was quite the bodyguard.

The rocket grunts found themselves parting before the newest recruit, a female with platinum blonde hair instead of the usual pink, blood red lips, and the scariest eyes they had ever seen. She marched up to the grunt guarding the stairs. She was the ideal grunt. Strong, scary, smart, and efficient. Several of the grunts wondered why she wasn't an executive. The grunt guarding the door looked at her. "And what are you doing here?" she stared for a moment. "_What do you think? I'm trying to get this mission done! So move, you useless lump! Or do you want me to __**make**__ you move!"_ She released her Pokémon, a nidoqueen. The grunts cowered. Giovanni had a nidoqueen. If he was the boss, and she was a grunt, than his nidoqueen was probably the scariest Pokémon alive. Strong, proud, and with the same look in her eyes as her trainer, the nidoqueen was quite the sight.

Silver marched into the Radio Tower, after putting up with Team Rocket's broadcasts for an hour. At the stairs, a female grunt was yelling at the grunt guarding the stairs. He could have sworn he had seen her somewhere, but he would have remembered that annoyingly bright hair of hers. He soon realized the problem. Her mouth was moving, but not in synch with her words. Also, the nidoqueen was a little too well cared for. Rocket Grunts treated their Pokémon like tools. And, his annoying rival had a nidoran. "What are you doing here! Do you really think you could get stronger like that?" She looked at him calmly. Her eyes showed no recognition. That girl was too good at lying.

Then, one of the smarter grunts stared at her. "Hey! You're that Kara girl who knocked me out at Slowpoke Well!" Kotone growled, and the illusion shimmered, revealing the tank top and jeans she was wearing. The grunts charged her, and Kotone beat up any grunt that came too close. When she had finished knocking out all the grunts, Kotone glared at Silver. "_You aren't going anywhere,"_ she growled. "_Like it or not, you're helping me. Consider this punishment for ruining my cover."_ She headed upstairs, and her Pokémon followed.

Kotone beat every single grunt that came in her way. She touched the glittering green stone at her neck, and instantly her aura flared to life, cloaking her in black flames. Most of the grunts stayed out of her way. She kicked down a door, and Proton looked at her, surprised. "You're the one who got in our way at the Slowpoke Well! Did you seriously come here just to make me angry? I'll show you the full extent of an Executive's wrath!" Proton seemed not to care about the fact that Kotone was on fire.

Kotone rolled her eyes. "_No, I came here to get cookies. What do you think? I came here to piss you all off."_

Proton growled. "Golbat, wing attack!" The golbat rushed forwards, only to have Vee lob a shadow ball at him. The ruby on her forehead glowed, and a beautiful ray of glowing power shot out of the gem, hitting the golbat hard and fainting it. Proton returned his Pokémon, and then sent out a wheezing. Vee's gem glowed again, releasing another blast of multicolored light, fainting wheezing.

Cream grinned. "I take back what I said about rainbows."

Vee smiled. "And that, ladies and non-gentleman, that's how you do it."

Proton glared at Kotone. "All you did was make our wrath grow. Next time… Be prepared!"

"_For you ending up in the intensive care unit,"_ thought Kotone. She handed Vee an oran berry, and they headed upstairs. They ended up in the broadcasting room, where a middle aged man was busy talking through the recording unit.

"Ahem, this is the director. We are pleased to announce that we are broadcasting shows to praise the glorious Team Rocket! Yes, I know you all are…Hey!" Kotone decided to get his attention by throwing an empty pokeball at his head. "It's you again! That little brat who messed with our plans in Mahogany! Well, I won't let you get away with it this time!" The director revealed himself to be Petrel. Sending out a koffing, he smiled at Kotone. "Hate to do this to a little girl, but you're going down! Koffing, sludge!" The Pokémon coughed up poison , which splattered across Vee, hissing as it hit her fur. Kotone hissed. Vee shook off the poison, revealing an area where her fur had been burnt off. She growled, and a beam of rainbow light hit the koffing, bringing it crashing down. Petrel recalled it, and Vee fainted every single one of his Pokémon in the same way.

Petrel smiled. "You won't be able to stop the others. You can't get any further without the Director's key card, and we have the director locked away. So, I'll just take my leave…" Before he could move, Kotone swept her leg towards his feet, tripping him. She planted her heel on his head. "_Don't move,"_ purred Vee. "_Hand us__the key, and we won't hurt you." _ Petrel did as he was told, and Kotone knocked him out.  
Kotone ran towards the Goldenrod Tunnel, after seeing some grunts guarding the area. Her suspicions were confirmed when she was confronted by a horde of grunts. Releasing Bellatona, Kotone watched as Bellatona drew water from beneath the surface, forming a wave that washed away the grunts. Jumping on Bellatona, and returning her pokemon to their pokeballs, Kotone headed forward.

She found a room full of bound and gagged people, and pulling out her switchblade, Kotone cut them lose. One of the people handed her a card. "Thank you for helping us! Take this card as my thanks." Kotone looked at the card. The key card. She nodded once, and ran back towards the Radio Tower.

She found yet another locked door, this one needing Petrel's voice as a password. Kotone released Starfire, who melted the steel door with one flame wheel. Kotone carefully avoided the molten steel, and went into the room.

Inside, Ariana waited. She smirked, and sent out an arbok. The arbok lunged for Kotone, and Cream shot forwards. Punching it in the jaw, she growled at the arbok. The arbok lunged again, shooting a barbed needle loaded with poison. It hit Cream square in the chest, and Cream wailed. Kotone screamed as the pain traveled across to her. It hurt so badly, and Kotone clutched her chest, fire burning. Arbok had hit a vital organ, and Cream needed help. Red washed across her vision. Vee stepped in, even though she was injured. The room trembled as Vee warped reality, attacking the arbok with hallucinations and headaches. It fainted, and Ariana sent out her next Pokémon, a gloom. Starfire burned the gloom badly, and it was down as well. The last Pokémon, a murkrow, was smacked out of the air by Queen, who double kicked it until it fainted.

Kotone got up, sweat beading her brow. Crawling over to Cream, she ripped open the pouch at her neck. The ash gave off a golden glow, and the illusion of rainbow feathers appeared as each of her Pokémon gave off a golden glow, fully restored. Everyone except for Cream, who had stopped whimpering in her sleep but was still unconscious and badly hurt. Kotone picked up her unconscious friend, and walked up the stairs, worry evident in every move she made.

The last executive was beaten with ease, but Kotone was too worried about Cream to notice any details. The Executive, who Kotone had just beaten, glowered at her. He said something, but Kotone was too worried to pay attention. He pulled out a gun, and aimed it at Kotone. Vee tried to redirect its path, but it still hit Kotone in the leg. Pain traveled up Kotone's leg, but she barely registered the pain. Kicking a hole in the window, she jumped on Skydance, and flew towards the hospital. Behind her, the bomb set off by a Team Rocket Grunt exploded, blowing up the Radio Tower.

My longest chapter yet!

Starfire: level 38

Cream: level 37( Will she be okay?)

Skydance: level 38

Queen: level 37

Vee: level 37

Bellatona: level 36

Temporary Pokémon

Shuckie: level 20


	19. Chapter 19: Police Again

Cream was going to be fine. Nurse Joy had done a scan, and it turned out that only the leveling gland had been poisoned. The leveling gland was a gland in all Pokémon that produced a type of fluid. Once the gland was full, the leveling fluid would travel through the Pokémon's body, strengthening it. Kotone was relieved. Cream could get surgery to remove the badly damaged gland, but the surgery wasn't scheduled until November, a good 6 months from now.

Kotone rushed out of the Pokémon center, face more radiant than it had been when she first entered. Cream was quiet, and was walking slower than the rest of her Pokémon. Kotone turned, concern showing on her face. "What's wrong Cream? You look sad."

Cream faced her. "Will you release me, now that I can't battle anymore?"

Kotone looked shocked. "I'm not heartless! You don't have to battle, I don't care. You're still our friend. Right?" The rest of the team cheered their agreement. "So come on guys! We're taking the day off!  
Cream nodded her agreement, and they flew off on Skydance.

Kotone had headed to Ilex Forest, and was busy grooming her Pokémon. After letting them bathe in one of the hidden hot springs of the area, she massaged their tired muscles. Feathers were preened, fur was brushed, scales were polished, and skin was moisturized. All cuts were taken care of, and Kotone cooked poffins and other various delicacies. As she sat down, Kotone winced. She had completely forgotten about the bullet lodged in her leg. She looked at it, frowning. Blood had stained the boot she was wearing, and her jeans had been ripped. She pulled off her boot and studied the wound. Touching it, she hissed.

Immediately, her Pokémon had rushed to her side and were staring at the wound. "Kotone, I don't care how much you hate hospitals, you're getting that checked and taken care of," growled Queen. Ever since evolving, she had taken on a motherly nature to the rest of the team. Kotone nodded. She didn't know how to treat bullet wounds.

The Nurse Joy who ran the Goldenrod Hospital nearly had a fit when she saw Kotone's leg. In a matter of minutes, Kotone had been knocked out and was dragged into a hospital room. Surgeons came in, and removed the bullet from her bone and bandaged the wound. When Kotone woke up, she swore angrily. "Queen! I'm going to kill you!" Several more words spewed from her mouth.

"Kotone, stop that or I'll wash your mouth out with soap." Queen looked exasperated, although the teasing look in her eyes showed that she was joking. Kotone continued cursing, and tried to get up. Much to her chagrin, she found herself attached to around a dozen tubes.

"I wasn't attached to this many tubes even when I fell through Burned Tower! Starfire, please get me out of here!" Starfire shook her head, and Kotone continued spewing every curse she knew- and she was rather creative. Living with Pokémon had its charms.

Nurse Joy came into the room. "You really need to control your Pokémon. I could hear them from several halls down." Kotone sighed, and turned towards the window. "_Arceus get me out of here,"_ she begged silently.

Kotone was released 6 hours later, after being given crutches and being given strict orders to not strain herself. She sighed, and got on Skydance. "Fly me to Mahogany, will you?"

Kotone headed through the Ice Path, sliding along and laughing with her Pokémon, who were out with her. In all reality, she was seated on Starfire, who really didn't mind carrying her 70 pound trainer. She laughed again, and suddenly she noticed a splash of color ahead.

It turned out to be a Kimono Girl, who looked at her with embarrassment. "I'm afraid my sandals got stuck to the ice. Can you help me please?" Kotone nodded, and leaned forwards, giving the Kimono Girl a slight push, freeing her. "Thank you!" The Kimono Girl twirled, and skated ahead.

Kotone made it to Blackthorn, and sighed softly. Suddenly, she heard voices from up ahead. "That was so fun! I can't believe we got to battle that weird lady! I like you much better than my old trainer! All he did was show me off to other people. I didn't like that." Kotone smiled. That sneasel sounded happy. She rounded the corner, only to come face to face with Silver, who was being followed by an exited sneasel. "_Silver?"_ Kotone had to be dreaming, she had to be. She couldn't take back sneasel, he seemed happy.

"Hmph. It's you again."  
Their friendly little talk was interrupted by a group of police officers. "Hey you! It's that kid who stole that totodile!" The police officer turned to Kotone. "You miss, are in big trouble. We specifically warned you **not** to do anything dangerous. Blowing up the Radio Tower is unacceptable. Both of you are coming with us."

Kotone glared. "_This time, it wasn't my fault. Catch me if you can!"_ Before the police officers knew what was going on, she had jumped on Skydance and had flown off. Silver followed, releasing his golbat and flying away as well. The police officers stared for a couple of minutes, before releasing pidgeotto of their own and flying after them.

"Got any ideas, Kotone? Because they're following us!" Silver yelled.  
Vee was released, and sat in front of Kotone. "_Just follow us! Kotone's planning something and I think it includes warp panels and dynamite."_

Silver rolled his eyes. Sadly, he couldn't think of a better plan than to follow his rival. Kotone. So that was her name. He sighed, and yelled back, "Fine, I'll see what this 'plan' of yours is. I'm only doing this because there's no other option!"

Kotone whispered something to Vee, who yelled back through telepathy, "_Whatever you say, Silvy!"_

They landed in the Ruins of Alph, and the pidgeotto were still dots on the horizon. Kotone ran towards a smaller building, leaving Silver no choice but to follow. It appeared to be a dead end, with only a strange shape decorating one of the walls. Kotone hobbled over to the wall, and by touching it she caused it to glow. Sliding her fingers over the stone, she shifted the design, forming a glyph. The wall rumbled, and moved to reveal a staircase. Kotone climbed onto Starfire, and went down the stairs, Silver following. He decided it was best not to ask about why the wall moved for Kotone. He was worried she might kill him for asking. The wall shifted back into place as soon as they went in.

The stairs led to a hall. Unlike the rest of the ruins, this room was still brightly painted and new. Kotone shifted her weight, and Starfire followed her movement and headed towards the room to the left.

Inside the room, dozens of unown floated, seemingly asleep. As soon as Kotone rode in, they opened their eye and looked at her. "_Hello Chroma,"_ giggled one of the unown.

"_Hello C,"_ Kotone replied.  
"_So, who's the cutie with you? I think the two of you look good together."_

"_C!"_ Kotone groaned. "_I didn't come here to gossip, and we're only rivals. So shut up please."_ Kotone was suddenly thankful the rest of the group couldn't hear their conversation.  
"_So Chroma, what brings you here?"_ asked Z. _"Surely not to gossip with C, and obviously something important, seeing as you brought a human here."_

Kotone sighed. "_The Radio Tower exploded, and they're blaming it on Kotone," _explained Vee.

The unown chuckled. "_Perfectly reasonable, seeing that they're talking about Chroma. You leave a trail of destruction wherever you go, don't you?"_

Kotone sniffed. "_It's not my fault I keep ruining human playthings. They're so delicate."_

"Sorry to interrupt your little staring match, but will somebody please explain what's going on?" Kotone jumped. She had completely forgotten Silver was in the room too. She decided to let the unown explain things to him.

Above, they could hear the sounds of growlithe barking and pidgeotto squawking. The Pokémon sensed this was sacred ground, a fact the officers obviously didn't realize. "_So,"_ Z said, a playful glint in his eye. "_Shall we scare the police away from here?"_ Kotone smirked, and nodded. This was going to be fun. Silver, however, wasn't so sure about this. Kotone had that look in her eyes again…

From up above, the growlithe began to howl and whine, and the pidgeotto shrieked. The sound of paws hitting the ground and wings flapping faded away, and the police officers shouted. Kotone nudged Starfire, who ran up the steps.

The officers had been surrounded by unown, who were spelling out words such as death, forget, kill, and trespasser. The room dropped by ten degrees, and the sound of slow wing beats filled the air. A honchrow flew in, spreading her glossy black wings. From the officers' point of view, it looked like Kotone had sprouted wings. They gulped, and the honchrow flew into view, eyes glowing red. She squaked, and a crowbat flew into the room, except that this one was pink. Together, the honchrow and crobat began to hypnotize the officers, as the unown began to glow.

"_You will forget," _they whispered. "_Be gone, and never come here again."_

The officers nodded, faces blank. The unown formed another word. Teleport. The unown flashed a glowing light, and the officers were gone. Kotone giggled. "Overkill, but that was fun! Thank you Lucky! Thanks Nite!" The two nodded, and flew off. Silver, who had been watching the entire time, paled. Kotone was overly creative with ways to hurt somebody…

Kotone sighed, and climbed onto Skydance as nimbly as she could with her leg wrapped in bandages. She sighed. "Take me to Blackthorn please." Skydance nodded, and flew off. The sun was coming up. She had been awake the entire day…


	20. Chapter 20: Call of Legends

BLARGHHHHH! Sorry, I got addicted to this roleplaying site, so I haven't updated in a bazzilion years. Sorry! Oh, and part of Wrath should be coming very soon...

Kotone decided to spend the night-or rather, the morning- sleeping in the Ice Path, curled against Starfire for warmth. Three hours later, Kotone had woken up, but she was still sleep deprived and extremely cranky.

But of course, sleeping for three hours was short even for Kotone, who was basically nocturnal, and in her tired condition she stumbled into a small hut, where an old woman and a couple of other people were having a late breakfast.

"Hello darling, would you like a croissant?" Kotone shook her head, and tried to wake up again. "Then you must want me to teach your Pokémon one of the ultimate moves." Kotone was pretty sure she had been heading to the gym… but she could stay a little longer.

"Alright, I believe the only one of your Pokémon that can learn a move is your typhlosion. Are you okay with that?" Kotone nodded, too tired to think straight.  
"Oh, this will work nicely. Only Pokémon who trust you will allow you to teach them this move, which is extremely powerful, but also energy depleting." Kotone nodded again, not really sure what the old woman had said.

"Now then, typhlosion, do you feel the fire burning within?" Starfire nodded. "Now then, imagine all the feelings you have for your trainer, and imagine the fire getting brighter." Kotone woke up fully, seeing as Starfire was glowing. "Now unleash the flames!" Torrents of white-hot flame rushed out of Starfire's mouth, rushing along the ground and charring everythingin her path. Kotone smiled, amused. And now, she would have to watch where she battled…

Kotone walked through the gym, lava bubbling underneath her. As she stepped on the first platform, it wobbled under her feet. She gulped, and hit the switch to move the platform forwards. The first trainer was an ace trainer, and he used a dratini and seadra, which Kotone defeated with a combo of ice fang and twister.

The next trainer, however, used a dragonair, and Kotone was forced to use Starfire, who unleashed a lava plume, which fainted Dragonair as well as destroying the switch. The platform went out of control, and smashed into the next one, effectively damaging both platforms. The jolt threw Kotone off the platform, and she reached out to try and grab the edge. She missed, and grabbed a grappling hook out of her bag. Throwing it towards the platform, Kotone pulled herself up, panting.  
"_Stupid systems! The hell is wrong with these people! This is a gym, for rayquaza's sake! The lever shouldn't be that easy to destroy! I almost died!"_  
Deciding she had enough of Clair's gym for one day, she decided to fly to Cianwood to check out the new Safari Zone.

Cianwood was a nice, quiet, place, the place where the last of Kotone's ancestors had fled to after the plague wiped out the population on the mainland. But as of now, she was walking along a steep cliff, waves crashing below her and Skydance flying through the air, ready to catch Kotone if she fell. There were a couple of trainers, who Kotone defeated with Cream.

"I hope you find your life partner someday!" It was Suzy, and her boyfriend Tim, who Kotone had just battled.

Kotone smiled. _"I already have." _Vee was talking for her, as usual.

Suzy looked interested. "Who is he?"

Kotone smiled, and hugged her Pokémon. "_Not the same one as you were referring to. My Pokémon are all I need, and I'm fine the way we are right now."_

Suzy smiled. "You'll change your mind, I'm sure of it.

"_Is she a psychic? Why does she sound so sure?"_ Kotone was getting rather uneasy about Suzy. She decided to ignore her comment, and continued on.

Kotone headed back to Cianwood, after finding that the Safari Zone was closed that day. As she neared the cliffs, thunder clouds began gathering in the distance. A roar was heard, and thunder rumbled. Raikou appeared on the cliff top, and roared again.

"Kotone! I have decided! Battle me and I shall see if you are worthy!" It jumped down from the cliff, and Starfire stepped up. Raikou barked once, and a ball of electricity gathered in front of it and hit Starfire. Starfire growled, and opened her mouth, a wall of flames rushing across the ground and striking Raikou hard. Raikou got up, burned. It lunged again, this time rushing forward at an impossible speed, hitting Starfire in the chest.

Both of them got up shakily, and Kotone pulled a pink pokeball out of her bag, a heal ball. Raikou's burn was draining its energy, and it obviously hurt to move. Throwing the ball at Raikou, it opened as it was thrown, drawing Raikou in. There was a soft sigh as Raikou was caught, the heal ball healing all its injuries. The ball popped open, and Kotone groaned. So she hadn't caught Raikou?

Raikou laid a silver feather at her feet, and bowed its head. "You are worthy of Lugia. I have decided it shall be you who wakes Lady Lugia." Kotone picked up the silver feather, and studied it. It had a beautiful sparkling sheen, and it glowed brighter as she held it. Rakou went back into the pokeball.

"It seems that you are the one who shall wake Lugia." Kotone yelped at the sudden noise, and nearly fell off the cliff. "_What the… Kimono Girls are stalkers?"_ A Kimono Girl was standing in front of her, an espeon at her side. "Come to Whirlpool Islands. We are waiting." The Kimono girl teleported away. Kotone's suspicion was confirmed when she saw the tracking device on Raikou. Shaking her head, Kotone jumped on Skydance and flew off to the Whirlpool Islands.

The caverns were home to seel and psyduck, who scattered when they saw the glowing silver feather held in the human girl's hand like a torch. "Is that girl crazy? She's going to awaken Lugia!" Kotone paid them no mind, and continued on, the feather glowing brighter as she got closer to Lugia.

They reached a cavern where a waterfall tumbled into a large, sparkling pool, and Kotone was sure she could see the shape of a large Pokémon slumbering deep in the pool. The feather grew bright enough to illuminate the entire room.

"Welcome Kotone." It was all of the Kimono Girls speaking at once. "In order to test your abilities, we shall have to battle you." Kotone nodded, determined to beat them. "But, in order to make this more fun, we shall battle coordinator style!" Kotone groaned. She was extremely lucky that she had participated in contests in Hoenn…

Kotone was wearing her white dress, and had spent a couple of minutes grooming her Pokémon. Luckily for Kotone, she always kept her Pokémon well groomed and prettied up, even though she didn't really care about looks.

"Hi! I'm Zuki, and I'll be battling you first! Go umbreon!" The dark type sat down, tail neatly folded over its paws. It called out an elegant battle cry.


	21. Chapter 21: Pop Quiz

ARGH! I'm sorry for not updating, it was just thatIwasonroleplayandneglect edthisstoryforHoneyonArsenic andmynewone... yeah, I had homework.

"Dark Pulse!" Umbreon closed his eyes, and a wave of black energy radiated out from him, hitting Queen. Queen retaliated faster than one would expect a Pokémon her size to, and kicked Umbreon several times, elegant, fast and deadly. Umbreon gritted his teeth, and clamped his jaws onto Queen's leg. She flung him off with a flourish of her arm, and Kotone nervously waited for him to get up. When Umbreon didn't, Kotone sighed, partially in relief, and she felt a pang of guilt as Zuki recalled her fainted Pokémon.

The next opponent was Sakura with her espeon, and Starfire switched with Queen. Starfire looked at Kotone, who nodded. It was time to see if their new battle move worked. Opening her mouth, Starfire unleashed a Swift/Flamethrower combo, fiery stars gleaming in the dark cave and slicing into Espeon. He wailed, and slumped in defeat. Kotone breathed a sigh of relief. So the combo worked after all.

Raikou stunned with a dazzling show of Discharge, accidentally paralyzing everyone in the room as well as the vaporeon they had been battling.

After that incident, the rest of the battles went smoothly, Kotone pulling off all of her battle moves flawlessly. In reality, she had used the empathy bond to telepathically communicate, showing them how to perform their moves by contest standards.

The flareon didn't last long against Bellatona, who managed to make a Surf attack beautiful, the waves catching the light of the Silver Wing. It got up shakily, and launched a Fire Blast at Bellatona, who shook off the attack and retaliated with a Dragon Rage. The flareon fainted.

The last opponent was a jolteon. Queen was sent back again, and the jolteon launched a barrage of pin missiles at her. Several hundred tufts of needle sharp fur dug into her skin, and Queen grunted in pain. While she was down, the jolteon leaped at her, and Kotone thought fast. Queen nodded, trusting her trainer's judgment. She raised her scales, shifting them in a dizzying and beautiful pattern, like a purple rose blooming over and over again. This managed to confuse the Pokémon, and it made contact with her poisonous spines. It wailed as the poison entered its stream, and Queen raked claws coated in shadows down his side. It was a critical hit, but Jolteon wouldn't give up. Yowling, he leapt for Queen, who bit him hard and tossed him, fainting him.

The Kimono Girls nodded, and the bell above them began to ring softly. The Kimono Girls looked pleased. "You are worthy of Lugia, it seems. To summon her from sleep, we will need to perform a dance passed down from generation to generation." They formed a circle position, and began to twirl. When one side moved in, the other moved out, creating a hypnotizing pattern as the bell tolled, swaying to the rhythm. Kotone watched as Lugia rose out from the depths, trilling a challenge. "If you wish to make me mine, human, you will have to prove it to me first!" Kotone shook her head, much to everybody's surprise.

"_No. I do not wish to own you, Lady Lugia. Please do not take offense. I do not wish for power, and if I did I would rather do it the hard way with my team than cheat with a legendary. I am Raikou's chosen, yes, but only the chosen to wake you. Perhaps one day I shall be worthy of owning the Queen of the Deep, but until then I shall make do with the Pokémon I have. But I am willing to battle you, to see where I stand."_ Lugia nodded, surprised by the girl's answer. Letting out a cry, it dove at Starfire, who responded with a swift straight to the face. The sounds of ringing cries and roars filled the room as the two fought.

Much to everybody's surprise, Lugia lost to Starfire. In the end, Lugia withdrew back into the pool. "Farewell human. Thank you for waking me. Good luck trying to wake Lord Ho-oh. I believe Suicune was entrusted his feather." Kotone nodded once, and then together with the Kimono Girls, she left the cave.

Kotone stood in front of Clair's gym. "I think," Kotone muttered. "I think Clair is going to kill me." Starfire dipped her head. As much as she loved her trainer, Kotone was in this alone…

"SO YOU WERE THE ONE WHO BROKE THE LEVER!?" Kotone was worried Clair would exploded from anger, seeing as her face was red from yelling. Kotone nodded, her face blank. "DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO REPLACE THAT!? I SWEAR YOU'RE PAYING FOR THIS!"

"_Clair used Dragon Rage. It's super effective,"_ Kotone noted in a bored voice. Her Pokémon suppressed snorts of laughter. Clair growled. "Very well. I will battle you outside, to prevent any more damage. Be prepared to leave this gym crying." Kotone shrugged, and beckoned for Skydance. She flew across the area where the platforms used to be, and walked outside.

Clair followed her, and they walked to the outdoor arena, which was used for League Tournaments as well as the last gym, due to the use of extremely powerful Pokémon.

"Dragonair! Crush them!" Clair sent out her first Pokémon, and Kotone motioned with her hand to Bellatona, who rushed forward, fangs gleaming with frost. She sunk her jaws into Dragonair, and held on tightly. "Thunder Wave!" Kotone thanked her lucky stars she had given Bellatona a cheri berry. Bellatona bit into the berry attached to her fin, and lunged again, frozen fangs sinking into Dragonair, who wailed one last time before fainting.

Clair recalled her fainted Pokémon, and then sent out a gyarados. Skydance jumped into the air, and then lashed out with her talons, ripping out several scales. Kotone winced. Even with the help of a Pokémon Center, that would still take a while to recover. "Dragon Pulse!" Gyarados opened her moth, and a beam of light hit Skydance, knocking her backwards. Skydance flew into the air, circling above her opponent. Clair growled. "Wait, Gyarados. Hit her when she comes down." Skydance dove down, whistling through the air, and slammed into Gyarados, knocking them both into the ground. Gyarados didn't get up, but Skydance flew up, crowing her victory.

Clair growled, clenching her jaw. "Dragonair." Starfire ran up, and opened her mouth. A torrent of flames shot out of her mouth, enveloping Dragonair in flames. "Dragon Pulse!" A beam of light forced the flames apart, and hit Starfire in the chest. Starfire roared, and opened her mouth again, the flames burning white hot as they rushed forward. Dragonair collapsed, and Clair recalled her, sending out her last Pokémon.

"Kingdra! We can still do this!" The sea horse Pokémon nodded, and waited for a command. "Hydro Pump!" Kotone suddenly threw a pokeball in front of Starfire, and Raikou was suddenly released. He roared, and the two dodged the Hydro Pump together. Starfire pulled pack, and Raikou raised his paw, creating a ball of crackling electricity. Motioning his paw forward, the ball shot forward and hit Kindgra, who flinched as the ball hit her. Clair gritted her teeth, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of Raikou. "Dragon Pulse!" Kingdra opened her mouth, and a beam of energy hit Raikou, who was pushed back several feet.

Raikou faked being badly injured, and Clair smiled in triumph. "Rain Dance!" One Hydro Pump, and Raikou was finished. Kotone's face split into a smirk, Raikou roared, and lightning split the sky in two. CRACK! The Thunder attack fainted Kingdra, and Kotone smiled. Clair gritted her teeth again.

"You haven't won yet! In order to prove yourself worthy of the badge, I need proof! Bring me back the Elder's seal, and I will give you the badge!" Kotone shrugged, and walked out of the arena after hugging her Pokémon happily, with the exception of Raikou, who was still rather distant.

After heading to the Pokémon Center, Kotone walked over to the edge of the shore, looking at the Dragon's Den in front of her. Releasing Bellatona, who slid into the water, Kotone hopped up on to her usual perch, and headed towards the cave.

Kotone recalled Bellatona, and walked to the entrance. "So you're the next one to try to pass the test?" It was an old man, and he looked at her Kotone curiously. Kotone dipped her head in reply, and he moved out of the way.

Kotone walked through the Den, an air of smugness radiating from her. She had wiped the floor with the trainers here, and she was proud of it. Served them right for trying to stop her. She needed that badge, and she would do all most anything for it. She stopped in front of the enormous main building, the shrine.

The shrine was even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside, beautiful scenes of the clan's biggest achievements done in enamel and outlined with ebony. Kotone walked to the end of the hall, where an old man sat. "Ah, so you are the latest one to take the challenge. You must have gotten on her bad side to make you do all of this." Kotone shrugged, and the old man chuckled. "You seem to put a lot of confidence in your Pokémon. Now then, in order to pass the challenge, and to get the seal, you will have to answer a couple of questions. Are you ready?" Kotone nodded slowly.

"What are Pokémon to you?"

Kotone thought for a moment, before she scribbled down her answer. "**My life. My friends, my partners, my confidants. I trust them with my life."**

The Elder waited, and then asked her the next question. "What helps you win battles?" Kotone didn't even have to think.

"**Strategy, good training, and a whole lot of luck and determination."**

"What kind of trainer do you wish to battle?"

"**Someone near my level. It's not fair to the Pokémon if you're at level 30 and your opponent is level 50."**

"What is important for raising Pokémon?"

"**Love and understanding. Your Pokémon may be at level 100, but if they don't love you then they will perform as badly as a newly hatched Pokémon."**

"Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. Which is more important?"

"**Does it matter? Magikarp evolve into Gyarados. Arceus can be defeated by a level 1 rattata. All Pokémon can be strong, if you put your heart in it."**

The Elder took her slip of paper, and frowned. "You got everything but one right. The trainer you choose to fight should be all." Kotone stood up, eyes blazing. She recalled her defeat at the hands of the Rich Kid.

"_How the hell is that fair to the Pokémon?! You don't pit a black belt against a little kid, so you wouldn't make a level 30 Pokémon fight a level 50 one! I think you need to open your eyes, because your judgment is flawed. Pokémon are like humans. Push them too hard, and they snap."_ Kotone whistled, and Bellatona poked her head into the shrine. Jumping on, Kotone rode out, stone faced and furious.

As she was ready to fly out of Blackthorn, an Ace Trainer from the Dragon's Den ran up to her, puffing.

"The Elder. Said. To give. You this," The tired boy pressed a little pendant into her palm, and ran off again. Kotone peered at it curiously. It was a golden pendant, with two intertwined dragons forming the surface. Kotone put it around her neck next to the Soul Dew and her Icy Rock. Smiling, she headed back to the gym.

Author's note: I was referring to the strategy F.E.A.R when I was talking about Arceus and Rattata. And I always thought the Elder was wrong about the Pokémon thing. I mean, you wouldn't make a little kid fight an adult.


	22. Chapter 22: The Letter

Just a peek at Kotone's life when she's not busy doing something nuts… oh wait, she's always doing something crazy…

Kotone sat at a small café in Goldenrod, sipping coffee and typing madly at the computer. Normal, until you took a closer look at what she was doing. "Pory! I need help with this!" Kotone glared at the League's files, which was denying her access. There was a small popping noise, and a porygon 2 popped out of the computer, and stared at the computer.

Diving back into the computer, the screen went black, and then reverted back to normal as Pory bypassed the security codes. Kotone sighed, and began scrolling through the files. The Pokémon League also served as a sort of security system, and they had all sorts of secret files on almost everyone. It was like a sort of gossip magazine, as you could find files on practically anybody.

Humming happily, Kotone drank her vanilla latte as she clicked on the files about her defeated enemy, Team Rocket. When the files popped up, she clicked on a new one she had never seen before. As she read on, her eyes widened, and she spit her coffee out.

Starfire, who had been eating her poffin, looked at Kotone in alarm. "Burned your tongue?" Kotone shook her head, and turned the screen to Starfire. "He… He's…." Kotone nodded to confirm it.

"WHAT!" Cream looked horrified.

Vee yawned. "I figured. It explains a lot of his behavior." Kotone nodded. She had figured the same, and this article only proved her suspicion. She would have confirmed it by asking Silver, but she was worried he'd bite her head off if she asked… Kotone closed the laptop. She was done for the day… the shock was a little too much.

"So what do you guys wanna do?" Kotone walked through Goldenrod, casting a guilty glance at the newly rebuilt Radio Tower.  
"Training?" Cream was hopping around excitedly, and one could almost believe that she was perfectly fine. Cream had never been one for fighting, but Kotone guessed she was trying to get as strong as possible before her surgery.

"What about that Pokeathelon?" Skydance offered.

"We should go do something interesting. There has to be some trainer around here we haven't beaten yet…" Queen sounded desperate.

A pidgeotto swooped out of nowhere and landed on Kotone's arm, handed her a letter and flew off. Kotone stared at the letter with interest. She knew nobody alive who would send her a letter… and this one had a fancy logo on it, recognizable by the pokeball. The League's logo. Kotone ripped the letter open with one fluid motion, slicing the envelope in half with her teeth, all while keeping the letter intact.

**Dear Miss Kotone,**

**You have been selected to compete in this year's League Tournament. The five finalists will be granted the chance to challenge the Elite Four and Champion Lance. **

**Best of luck, **

** Karen.**

Kotone folded the letter, and pressed it to her heart, and gave the letter a quick kiss. "The League Tournament…" In a rare show of giddy happiness, Kotone hugged her Pokémon happily, and kissed them, even Raikou. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Kotone looked elated. She smiled happily. "Let's get training!"

Kotone stood back in New Bark Town, almost in disbelief. "_How ironic_," She thought. "_To both start and end the journey here."_ She stood at the water's edge, remembering how five months ago, she had stood here, in the same spot, wondering if she was ever getting out of here.

"Kotone!" Ethan ran up to her. "I didn't think you'd be coming back. Your mother has been asking for you." Kotone hit her head against her bag. Of course Mrs. Soul would nag. She had forgotten completely about the rent… She handed Ethan an envelope full of money, and gestured towards her current house. "You want me to take this to her?" Kotone nodded. "Alright! See you, Kotone!" He ran off, and Kotone wondered why the only two boys she knew were complete opposites.

Releasing Bellatona, Kotone jumped on her back and headed to the League, Mt. Silver looming before her to the west, a silent guard of the two regions.

As Bellatona swam, Kotone stared at the water below her, deep in thought. They stopped before a small cave, and Kotone walked through the entry. Tohjo Falls. Kotone stared at the cascading water, the sound resonating in her bones. Her entire team was out, and they too stared at the falls, and the goldeen and seaking jumping up the falls, as well as the occasional magikarp. Kotone recalled her Pokémon, and jumped on Skydance. Skydance flew up the falls, and Kotone reached out to feel the mist gather on her hands.

After walking back out into the bright sunshine, Kotone blinked a couple of times to clear the spots from her eyes, and realized that there was someone up above, making their way towards her.

It was an Ace Trainer, and Kotone braced herself. The last time she had battled one, she had set her Pokémon on Kotone when she started winning. "Hi there! Are you participating in the tournament?" Kotone nodded once. "Do you want to battle?" Kotone shrugged, and Skydance flew forward, as if to say she was ready to battle.

"Go Starmie!"

Cream let out a battle cry in response.

The fight ended with the Ace Trainer losing, and she smiled. "You're really strong! You might even make it as a finalist!" She shook Kotone's hand. "Good luck to you!" She waved goodbye and left.

Kotone stood in front of the gate to the League, and suddenly she felt like losing her lunch. "Kotone! You can't afford to back down now!" Kotone caught the eye of Starfire and nodded, taking a shaky breath. She walked in through the gate.

Inside the reception room, a flood of other trainers waited around, getting their badges, license, and letter checked. A policeman pushed his way to Kotone. "Excuse me miss! I'll take a look at your papers!" Kotone pulled out her badge case and her ID, the one with only her first name and the initial of her last name. "Letter please!" Kotone handed him the letter. "You're free to go! Good luck!" Kotone nodded and pushed through the doors to Victory Road.

Kotone stood alone in Victory Road, looking at the boulder blocking her way. She stared at it for a moment, and then swiftly jammed a piece of wood underneath it. Jumping up into the air, she flipped once and landed on the lever, pushing the boulder into a hole. "Hah! I'm not completly helpless!" She crowed softly as she saw other trainers using their Pokémon to push the boulders. Jumping over the hole, she continued on, humming.


	23. Chapter 23: Revenge?

Haha, get ready for Kotone's temper!

Kotone stood with her starter, panting hard. She had shortcut through wild ryhorn territory, and they didn't mind until another trainer followed her and tried to catch one of them. Naturally, they blamed Kotone, and had tried to trample her to death. She had run away, and she wasn't sure what had happened to the other trainer. She shrugged. It was his fault for trying to catch one, she wasn't going to clean up the mess.

Kotone straightened, and smiled. Light shone from up above, and she knew from the fresh air blowing that she was almost there. "We're almost there, guys." Her voice was but a murmur. "Please, take me a little further." She walked towards the entrance.

"Hey Kotone!" Kotone smacked herself. Of course her rival would come and ruin a perfect moment… She turned around. "_Yes Silver?"_ She put her hand on her belt, where six luxury balls stirred.

"Since we're so damned close anyway, let's see which of us is stronger!" He released Sneasel. Kotone shrugged, and swept her hand towards Sneasel. Starfire opened her mouth, breathing flames. Sneasel dodged.

"Hah! You'll have to try harder if you want to hit me, you pathetic lump of fur!"

Starfire twitched. "I swear, you sound exactly like your trainer!" She ran towards the offender, ready to shoot a point blank Flamethrower at Sneasel. Sneasel dodged, and this pissed Starfire off. "Damn it, stop moving!" She howled, and shot a Flamethrower/Swift combo. The burning stars tore into Sneasel, who slowly got up and growled angrily.

"A little hit like that won't hurt me."

Starfire snorted. "Yes it did."

Silver recalled Sneasel, keeping an eye on Kotone. She had a devious look on her face. Little did he know, Kotone was suffering from destruction withdrawal. "Kadabra."

Kotone threw the luxury ball with the petal sticker out, and Vee popped out. She sat with her tails wrapped around her paws, a calm look on her face.

"Psybeam!" Kadabra opened his eyes to glare at Vee, and then a beam of colored light shot out and hit her, pulling her into the air and throwing her into a wall.

Vee growled, and a ball made of shadows formed between her paws. Raising a paw, the orb hit kadabra in the chest, knocking him back a couple of feet. When Kadabra got up, Vee sprang at him, sinking her small but sharp fangs into Kadabra's neck. He growled, and threw her off with a Psybeam.

Hissing, she sprang to her paws and lobbed another Shadow Ball at Kadabra, finishing him off. Silver recalled his fainted Pokémon, and Kotone stared at Vee, who had returned to her usual calm self.

The cry of magneton alerted Kotone, and she smirked. Finally, a chance to do something destructive. She released Queen, who gave her trainer one glance and sighed. Slamming her tail into the ground, Queen set off an Earthquake that shook the entire cave. All of Kotone's Pokémon had been recalled, and Kotone kept her footing even as the cave shook. Magneton, however, hadn't been spared, and lay in a daze on the floor. Silver recalled his fainted Pokémon, and sent out Haunter. Kotone threw Cream's pokeball in the air, and Cream popped out.

"Mean Look." Haunter glared at Cream, who stuck her little pink tongue out. A beam of red light shot from her eyes, and Haunter growled as he became solid once more.

Cream ran forward, and threw Haunter at an area of wall where fractures already ran. Haunter went through the wall and out of a little hole. Silver swore under his breath and recalled Haunter.

Before either of them could order a move, a distant voice was heard. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS YEAR'S ANNUAL LEAGUE TOURNAMENT!" Kotone recalled her Pokémon, and her and Silver ran for the exit.

Kotone slipped into the crowd, and stared at the man on the stage. It was Lance, the league champion. "Hello, and welcome to this year's annual League Tournament. For those of you who are participating, we wish you luck. For those of you who come to watch, please don't bother the contestants. Will the contestants please come up here!"

Kotone sighed and pushed her way through the crowd, where she and nineteen others stood on the stage. She scanned her opponents. She recognized Silver, and another Ace Trainer, but she didn't recognize the rest of them. Her eyes drifted to the last person in the row, and she resisted the urge to strangle him to death. Him! That stupid, stuck up Rich Kid. She was going to get her revenge, and it wasn't going to be pretty… Her Pokémon, which were with her, growled and hissed. They all wished to see his blood run under their claws, fangs, and talons…

Karen stepped up. "Alright! For the first round, the contestants shall draw lots to see who they battle. Miss Kotone, will you please come up?" Several people clapped and whistled, Kotone's reputation well known.

Kotone stared at the little spinner, slips of paper being tumbled over and over again. Kotone reached her hand in and picked the slip of paper that fell into her open palm. She unrolled it. **Rich Kid Miles.** A wide grin burst across her features, and only her Pokémon saw the gleam in her eyes. Karen took the slip of paper.

"Alright, the first round shall be Kotone against Rich Kid Miles, the hotshot trainer from Sinnoh!" Several fangirls swooned at his name. "And now for Miss Rachel to draw her lot…"

Kotone sat in her room, the one with the four poster bed and enormous bathtub. She lay flat on her back, running over scenarios in her head. If she lost, she would kill him. If she won, she would only hurt him badly. If they tied, she would have Skydance pick him up and drop him from 4,000 feet in the air. She turned on the TV, and watched the news.

"Hello, and welcome to Johto Now, the best news channel in all of Johto." Kotone rolled her eyes. There were only two news channels in Johto… "Today we give you coverage of this year's annual tournament. Reporter Valorie is there to give us coverage of the trainers participating this year."

A young woman with blue hair stood in front of a large crowd as the last of the trainers picked lots. "Hello, I'm Valorie reporting live at the Indigo League Tournament. The crowd is going wild for their favorite trainers, and I'm sure all of you at home are rooting for someone."

The scene shifted back towards the anchorwoman. "Valorie, who are this year's competitors?"

"This year, we have several well known trainers, as well as many others. The first and most notable is Kotone, the talented young trainer who we all know as the one who stopped Team Rocket. Her Pokémon, at least according to our sources, are typhlosion, furret, nidoqueen, gyarados, pidgeot, and espeon."

The anchorwoman nodded. "And who are the others?" Reporter Valorie continued with a list of the trainers, along with their Pokémon. Among the twenty, two were grass specialists, one was a rock specialist, two were flying specialists, six were mixed, one was a dragon specialist, another three were water specialists, one was a bug specialist and the last four were fire specialists.

Kotone fell asleep just as the news talked about the troubles in neighboring regions.

Starfire: level 45

Skydance: level 42

Cream: level 41

Bellatona: level 43

Vee: level 41

Queen: level 42

Raikou: level 41


	24. Chapter 24: Wrath part II

_"_Viora! I hate doing multiplication!" Seven year old Kotone glared at the gardevior, who calmly opened her eyes and smiled at Kotone, a scheme forming in her mind.

"But the other humans your age are doing algebra. I'm going easy on you." 

Kotone flew into a pout. "I can do whatever they can do!"

"Good. Now go back to Metagross, and when you have mastered multiplication we can move on to fractions and decimals. When you're done, we can work on trying to do Quiver Dance."

Kotone's face lit up. "You mean that really pretty bug type move that you saw in the future? The one that will become really popular in contests?"

"Yes. The very same. If you finish quickly enough, we can also work on teaching you Dragon Dance or Swords Dance."

Kotone promptly ran off to look for Metagross.

Kotone woke up from her dream, only to find that it was 1:00 in the morning. She got up and slipped out the window of the small house she was staying in, and climbed up a nearby tree. Sitting on the lightest branch that would support her weight, Kotone took out a flute and blew softly on it, and a cloud of zubats swarmed her.

Deep within the cloud, concealed from view, Kotone held her arm out. Lucky flew in, her four wings flapping. The crobat landed on Kotone's outstretched arm. The bell at her neck rustled slightly, and Kotone removed it, now that its purpose was served. "How goes your alliance with the Nite clan?"

"Very good. With the help of Nite's murkrow, we were able to find out much about what is happening in other regions."

"Anything of interest?"

"Oh yes. Team Magma and Team Aqua are starting to stir. The people don't notice, but we Pokémon do. The water and fire types are taking sides in Hoenn."

"So Team Aqua is alive… Father sure is persistent. "

Your father is Archie?"

"No. That man will never be my father."

"But he is your biological father?"

"Yes. And I am forced to live with this every day."

"Is this why…?"

"Indeed."

Lucky dipped her head. "Anything you wish for me to do?"

"Yes. Give this letter to Nana in Hoenn. She is leader of the pack in Petalburg Woods."

"Very well." The flock flew off, and Kotone sat in the tree, deep in thought. It seemed she would be leaving this region sooner than she thought she would.

As the sun peeked over the horizon, Kotone was already up and cooking breakfast. Poffins, pokéblocks, apricorn juice, and various other foods were piled on the table, the small table groaning under the weight of all the food. On the two beds, her team began to stir.

"Good morning, sleepyheads! Today's such a beautiful day to KICK SOME ASS!" Kotone's voice suddenly went from a cheerful trill to a dark tone. Her Pokémon all gave their agreement, and began to dig in.

"Remember guys; eat enough so that you'll have energy throughout the tournament. However," here Kotone fixed Cream with a glare. Cream stopped eating her fourth serving. "No stuffing yourselves to the point where you'll have stomach ache. We can stuff ourselves later." Kotone speared a mago berry with her fork and began to eat.

"Round One! Trainer Kotone against Rich Kid Miles!" The fangirls swooned.

Miles smirked at Kotone from the other side of the arena. "You again? I thought I had taught you a lesson the last time! Save yourself some trouble and LEAVE."

Kotone grit her teeth and clenched her fist. _"Now then Kotone…"_ She chided herself. "_Beat the shit out of him first, and then tie him to a tree covered in honey with a beedrill nest strapped to his face."_

A smirk flew across her face, and she gave Miles a calm look. He rolled his eyes, and then stepped on the platform. The platform moved up, high enough so that rogue moves wouldn't hit him. Kotone however, didn't get on the platform, staying down in the arena. A murmur ran through the crowd.

"Is this bravery or what? Kotone isn't getting on the platform!"

"… Stupid girl, she'll kill herself."

Kotone ignored it all, and instead stared at her opponent. All of her Pokémon were inside of their luxury balls. She waited for Miles to make a move. "Electivire, go." Miles threw his pokéball down, and an impressive looking yellow Pokémon popped out.

Kotone smiled evilly, and threw Queen's pokéball in the air. Queen roared a battle cry, and Electivire glared at her.

"Bring it on, mouse."

"Says the enormous power generator."

Queen roared again, and the earth exploded upwards, streams of dirt buffeting Electivire as he staggered to keep his balance. The streams even shot high enough to shower rocks and pieces of tile all over Miles.

He growled. "Fire Punch!" Electivire ran forward, his fist coated in flames. Queen shifted her scales so that her poisonous scales faced out, and as Electivire made contact with her hide, he ended up sinking his fist in her poison tipped scales. Both Pokémon staggered back, and Queen growled. Electivire held his poisoned fist gingerly, and Queen nursed her burn.

Kotone ran over and quickly gave Queen a rawst berry dipped in honey. Queen ate it gratefully, and then waited for Miles to give his Pokémon an antidote or a pecha berry.

Miles however, just frowned. "Come on, you! You can survive that!"

"_Obviously, he's never had worse than a paper cut, I swear. Poison hurts."_ Both Queen and Kotone were thinking the same thing.

Kotone sighed. "_If Electivire faints, he won't feel it anymore. That's the best I can do for him."_ Queen slammed her tail into the ground, causing an earthquake that shook the entire arena, platform and all. Kotone somehow miraculously kept her balance. The thunderbolt Pokémon fainted.

"Meganium!" Miles recalled Electivire and sent out his next Pokémon. Queen stepped back and allowed herself to be recalled, and Kotone sent out Starfire.

Starfire casually looked at her opponent. Meganium did the same, and the two shot eye daggers at each other. Starfire opened her mouth, and a stream of fire shot out and hit Meganium, who let out a cry of pain.

"Earthquake!" Meganium stomped her foot on the ground, and the ground shook again. Starfire roared in pain, and Kotone was about ready to recall her badly wounded starter. Starfire caught Kotone's eye and shook her head. Kotone lowered the pokéball. She nodded to Starfire. _"If you think you can, go for it."_

Starfire's collar burned white hot, the intense heat created a hazy effect on the battle field. Everybody began to sweat. Charging forward, Starfire unleashed a blast of fire that ran along the ground, rushing in on Meganium. The powerful attack fainted her in one blow.

"Would you look at that, folks! Typhlosion's Blaze combined with the ultimate fire move: Blast Burn! What a show!" Miles looked like his vein was about to rupture.

"Golem!"

Starfire was recalled, and Bellatona was sent out. "Woah…" Golem glanced up at his huge opponent, who smiled, showing off large fangs glittering with ice.

"Hit me with your best shot, loser." Bellatona darted forward, sinking ice cold fangs into Golem's skin with a loud crunch. He hissed as ice ran in between the plates on his skin, and dislodged Bellatona.

Suddenly, Kotone darted forward, and jumped onto Bellatona's head. The red gyarados smiled, the look odd on her ferocious features.

Water suddenly formed from water vapor in the air and came trickling to the surface from deep underground as Bellatona thrashed her tail, a huge wave forming and hitting Golem, as well as his trainer. When the tide receded, Golem was slumped on the arena floor, but as Kotone watched he got up again, and hurled a rock seemingly out of nowhere at Bellatona, who roared as the rock hit her hard.

Bellatona fell, and Kotone clung on, gritting her teeth as she felt an invisible rock smash against her ribs. _"He used a Max Revive!" _Kotone growled, and Bellatona caught on to her trainer's emotions. They had to win! Bellatona promptly created another wave to douse the Golem, and then followed with slithering forward and blasting several thousand gallons of water in Golem's face. This time, Miles didn't bother with another Revive.

Meanwhile, in Kurt's house, he and his granddaughter were watching the tournament on their television. "Go Kotone!" Mina cheered. "She's got a gyarados!"

Kurt shook his head in wonder. "I knew that girl was something. Catching and taming a gyarados, and a shiny at that! And so quickly too!"

Mina resumed cheering and hugging her slowpoke. "Go Kotone!"

Miles pulled out another pokéball, and smiled. "Phione, Charm." The little water type blinked innocently at Bellatona, who immediately lowered her guard. Kotone sighed, and switched in for Skydance.

Skydance trilled, and flew up, dodging a Water Pulse on the way. As she circled, Miles growled. "Wait for that pidgeot to come back down, and then hit it with Water Pulse." Skydance dove down, creating a sonic boom as she swept in and whacked Phione with her wings, knocking it backwards. This rendered Phione unable to hit her, and Skydance flew in for one last Wing Attack, hitting Phione again and fainting it.

"Empoleon! Hydro Pump!" The attack was so fast, Skydance never had time to dodge it. She let out one last cry as she fainted. Kotone felt a wave of dizziness hit her, and she frantically hoped that Empoleon was Miles' last Pokémon, or she would pass out and be disqualified.

She decided it didn't matter if they knew she used Raikou. Pulling out the luxury ball, she released her last resort. Raikou roared, and there was a gasp from the crowd. Storm clouds began to gather, and Miles swore. "Hydro Pump." Empoleon opened his beak and let out a blast of water, but Raikou dodged the attack. Roaring, an enormous lightning bolt tore down and hit Empoleon. Thunder crashed, and rain began to pour. Empoleon got up, and Miles recalled him, shaking with anger.

"That bitch cheated! She can't use Raikou! That was a fluke! Everybody knows she can't win by herself!" He went purple in the face. "I mean, she uses a fucking furret!"

The announcer flipped through a rule book. "There is nothing here saying she can't use legendaries."

Everybody turned to Kotone, whose face was hidden by her hair. She seemed calm, but most of the Pokémon could feel the dark aura surrounding her. The only sign of her anger was the fact that she kept clenching and unclenching her fist slowly. _"I can take the insults- I've heard plenty. But I can only tolerate so much… Humiliating me and insulting my Pokémon is out of the question."_

She pushed her hair back from her face. "Psychic." It was a soft command, almost inaudible. Vee popped out of her pokéball, and her eyes glowed blue. Miles was lifted several feet in the air, cursing and struggling.

"_Now then Miles,"_ Vee purred. _"Do you still think I'm weak now?"_

Miles struggled and cursed. "Put me down! I demand it!"

"_Okay."_ Vee sounded gleeful. Letting go of her control, he crashed into the ground, which was still wet from Empoleon's Hydro Pump. He crashed face first into the mud, and got up.

"I didn't mean it like that, you stupid animal!"

Vee lifted him up higher, and let go again. "_Is that what you mean? Or is this?"_ She lifted him up in the air and let go again, and Kotone made no move to call back her friend.

"I… I don't get it." Starfire had gotten out of her pokéball, as well as the rest of Kotone's Pokémon, with the exception of Skydance.

"Get what?" Cream watched with interest as her junior smashed Miles into the mud again.

"I don't get why Kotone has never tried this on Silver. I mean, he called her weak too."

"Maybe because he never humiliated her in public?" Queen watched as Vee made yet another mud angel.

"Maybe she just has a higher tolerance of him," Starfire offered.

"Meh." The three of them dropped the topic and continued watching with Bellatona as Kotone vented her anger out on Miles.

Empoleon decided to join in on the fun and Hydro Pumped his trainer once Vee had finished making mud angels with Miles. "That's for buying me canned food when you always eat out."  
Kotone recalled her Pokémon, stumbled into the Pokémon Center, healed her team, and promptly collapsed on the floor as the empathy bond kicked in.

Me: Yes, the whole psychic thing was based off Inuyasha. :)

…. Which I do not own. :(


	25. Chapter 25: Double Battle!

(*Twitches feebly.*) NYU… why is there only one movie for Origin? Gracie…

Huh? Oh right. Ahem. This? Oh. WOULD YOU QUIT BOTHERING ME? I'M UP AT 2:00 IN THE MORNING TYPING GRACIE!

Kotone woke up covered in blankets, Nurse Joy standing over her. "You okay, sweetheart?"

"_Huh? Oh right…"_ Kotone recalled collapsing after healing her team. She nodded once.

"Honey, I'm not sure why you collapsed. Do you want me to do a quick test?"

Kotone shook her head frantically. _"Arceus, no!"_ She quickly thought of an excuse. _"Perfect!"_ She dug through her bag, and pulled out a notebook. **My starter is a typhlosion. When we were battling, she got too excited. I probably collapsed from heat stroke.**

"Well in that case, you should drink more water, and stop wearing that black jacket of yours. Very well, you can go." Kotone scrambled up, and after waving goodbye, ran off.

She was sitting in a tree when Lucky came, alone this time since it was the middle of the day and her zubat minions hated the sun.

Lucky handed Kotone a strip of wood, with several notches carved into it. She scanned it over, and then smiled. "Seems that I do still have friends in Hoenn." Kotone laughed, a small, innocent laugh. She handed Lucky a carton of MooMoo milk, and Lucky drank from it gratefully. She flew off, and Kotone leaned back against the tree.

"I wonder…when will they announce the next challenge?" As if to answer her question, an announcement rang out across the plateau.

"ATTENTION ALL COMPETITORS! THE NEXT CHALLENGE WILL BE ANNOUNCED! PLEASE HEAD TO THE MAIN STAGE!" Kotone covered her ears, and released her Pokémon. She ran to the main stage, where ten other people remained.

Karen got up onto the stage, and smiled. "The next challenge will be double battles. This will be determined by… a draw, of course! The giant monitor flickered to life, and the teams were posted onto the screen.

Lucky for Kotone, she wasn't paired with anybody she knew, which was a relief. But then again, she only knew so many people in the first place… Her opponents were a double team, two Ace Trainers who had been together most of their life. The person on her side was a Lass named Haylee, who apparently specialized in Eeveelutions.

"Hi! So you're my partner?" Kotone nodded once. "You're Kotone, right?" Another silent nod. "Um… You don't talk much, huh?" Haylee gave up on talking with the silent girl. Kotone shifted her weight slightly, and then handed Haylee a slip of paper.

**Do you know what those two people specialize in?**

"Glad you asked! That girl Monica likes grass types, but the boy Aiden likes water types, with one ground/water type."

Kotone nodded. This would be easy, if they played it right.

"ROUND FOUR! KOTONE AND HAYLEE VRS. MONICA AND AIDEN!" Kotone covered her ears and wondered why the announcers were so loud. Was the crowd hearing impaired or something? She sent out Skydance.

"_Only attack the water types. Avoid the grass attacks, and then you can finish them off."_ Skydance nodded, and then spread her wings wide, as if to show off. In reality, she was getting ready to fly.

Haylee released a jolteon, who growled at the poliwrath and sunflora. "Jolteon, discharge!" As the wave of electricity spread, Skydance quickly flew up and began circling above Poliwrath.

Both Pokémon were left standing, Poliwrath in a bad condition and Sunflora was only slightly hurt. "Giga Drain and Dynamic Punch!" Sunflora began draining energy from Jolteon, and Poliwrath rushed forward and punched him hard.

Jolteon let out a wail as he was thrown backwards, and began to totter around dizzily. Haylee recalled him and sent out an espeon.

"_Now Skydance!"_ Skydance tucked her wings in, plunging down towards her opponent. As she broke the sound barrier, she spread her wings out and pulled sharply up, raking her claws down Poliwrath's side.

He fainted, and Haylee was forced to improvise. "Psychic on that Sunflora!" Espeon's eyes glowed as reality bended, and Sunflora was thrown into the air.

Battered, Sunflora waited for her trainer to do something. "Giga Drain!" Espeon hissed as his energy was taken, and Sunflora sighed as a little of her energy was given back. Skydance launched herself into the air, and on her descent she slashed upward with one leg, and then downwards with the other. Sunflora fainted.

"Vileplume!"

"Quagsire!"

Kotone hated herself for not having a grass type, but in one of her risky plans, she sent out Vee, who closed her eyes and sat still.

Vileplume looked at his trainer. "Energy Ball!" A glowing green mass was formed, and hit Vee. She hissed as she was sent tumbling backward, but got up with a hiss. A beam of multi colored light hit Vileplume, and seconds later Future Sight hit, fainting him.

Both Kotone and Vee had identical smirks on their faces, and Kotone hugged Vee. Quagsire, who had been conveniently forgotten about, looked to his trainer. "Muddy Water!" Quagsire raised a paw, and streams of water hit both Vee and Espeon.

"Now my fur is soggy!" wailed Vee. "There was a pretty good reason why I didn't want to be a vaporeon! I hate water!"

"Uh…Sorry?" The quagsire had a bored look on its face.

Vee just sighed and lunged, biting Quagsire before throwing him into the air. "He tastes like rubber and fish," she grumbled, rubbing her nose.

"Espeon! Psybeam!" A multi colored blast shot out from Espeon's jewel and hit Quagsire, fainting it. Haylee cheered, and smiled at Kotone. "We do pretty good together, don't we?" Kotone just shrugged, before turning her attention back to the battle.

"_Sweet Arceus…"_ There was now a Venusaur and Blastoise looming in front of the two espeon.

"Um…Hi?" Vee stared at Blastoise, and Kotone decided to send out Cream.

Cream stared calmly at Blastoise, and then gave a little battle cry.

"What's a little furret going to do….!" The sentence was cut off by a lightning bolt that came out of nowhere, and thirteen thousand watts worth of power traveled through Blastoise.

"Never judge on appearances," muttered Cream. Blastoise was still conscious, if only by a little. Aiden rushed forward to give his Pokémon a Max Heal, while Monica kept them from hurting Blastoise while he recovered. Blastoise however, decided he wouldn't just sit around and aimed a Hydro Pump at Espeon, fainting him.

"Frenzy Plant!" Vines shot out from Venusaur's back and erupted from the ground, completely encasing Cream in a tree. Kotone flinched visibly, and felt the wave of black go across her vision, signifying that Cream was badly injured. She pulled out a pokeball, the world spinning beneath her.

Recalling Cream, she sent out Raikou. The tree fell down, and Kotone sighed. She pointed an accusing finger at Venusaur and Blastoise, and Haylee sent out Jolteon.

A wave of electricity traveled from Raikou to Blastoise and Venusaur, and Jolteon absorbed some of the energy to heal himself. Blastoise staggered, but managed to stay conscious, while Venusaur seemed to be totally indifferent to the attack.

"Hydro Pump!"

"Leaf Storm!" The two attacks whipped towards the two electric types, and they managed to dodge the Hydro Pump. Millions of leaves cut into their skin, and some of the leaves grazed Kotone, cuts starting to well on her face and hands. Raikou ran forward, sinking large fangs into Venusaur.

Venusaur roared in anger, attempting another Leaf Storm. Jolteon raced forward and let loose a Thunder, fainting Venusaur in one blow. Monica sighed, and stepped back from the platform, pleading with Aiden to win.

Blastoise fell to a combined Discharge/Thunder combo, and with a sigh Aiden announced his defeat. Kotone however, didn't stick around for the celebration. Wiping the blood off her face and replacing it with fresh blood from her hand, she walked off to the Pokémon Center.

"Kotone!" Starfire and Queen both glared at their trainer. "What is with you and hurting yourself?" Kotone shrugged as she finished bandaging her cuts. "Nothing. Now go to sleep." She fell asleep within minutes, curled into a little ball and huddled against Starfire for warmth.

Why do Kotone's pokemon keep hopping levels? Because she trains. Alot. There is a time span between one chapter and the next. Between this chapter and the last? Three days passed in this world.

Starfire: Level 49

Skydance: Level 45

Cream: Level 44

Queen: Level 45

Vee: Level 45

Bellatona: Level 44

Raikou: :Level 43


	26. Chapter 26: The Past, Fully Explained

So…I realized I never really introduced Kotone's past, only through a couple of dreams and what she says. (She doesn't talk much…)

The record of Kotone's early years, as written by an Aqua Grunt.

3/20/ 1998

Marina Aqua was born on March Twentieth, 12:00 a.m. to our glorious leader and his wife Evelyn.

The little girl takes after her mother, with the same blue eyes and brown hair, and she has the same empathy, even though she is too young to talk. This is undesirable behavior for the heir and future leader, or so Archie says. I got to meet her the other day. She is quite the adorable thing, and she has a sense of royalty about her. I think Archie plans on marrying her off to Giovanni's son to cement him in place in Kanto as well as Hoenn.

8/27/2000

Things aren't going so well for little Marina and her mother now. Archie has started drinking. Every time I clean his office it reeks of alcohol, and there are beer bottles everywhere. I can sometimes hear his drunken raving, and Evelyn and Marina have been taken away from headquarters now. The last I saw of her, her eyes had changed color three times. Weird.

10/1/2002

Terrible news has been brought to us today.

Marina has run off with her mother, fleeing into Petalburg Woods. Rumor has it that Marina couldn't take being abused any longer, and her mother ran off with her. What's even more astounding is the fact that I've heard that Marina convinced her mother to go, and poor Evelyn would never leave her husband, no matter what he did to her. I hope they find them before the Mightyena do.

A journal written by Viora, 2002-2005.

Day of the Human Child

Today I found a human female and her child in the forest. The poor things looked terrible, so many bruises and broken bones, and they were terribly thin. I took them in and fed them, but the strangest thing was that the little girl seemed to understand me. The mother looks very ill, I wonder how she will support herself and the child.

Day of the Choice

I am simply astounded by the little girl's choice. It appears that she has convinced her mother to leave her here so she can better take care of herself, I wouldn't expect a human so young to make such a choice. Simply astounding. I have taken the girl under my wing, just to better reassure her mother.

Day of Naming

Kokoro seems to enjoy her new name. Although she still misses her mother, she has come to love the forest. It seems however, that she was already used to living in the forest before she came here. The little girl is growing on me, and I think I would like to teach her some of our secrets.

Day of Training

Kokoro is stubbornly insistent on being able to take care of herself. I'm teaching her the healing arts and how to use her psychic power, and I have asked a friend to teach her self-defense. I have also asked Metagross to teach her basic math, science, history, as well as reading and writing.

Day of Warning

Kokoro has gotten much stronger, both physically and mentally. She can lift fallen trees with her mind only, and she was able to judo-flip a young boy who was tormenting the zigzagoon. I still worry though, because I can see something bad coming up in her future. Her future is long and hard, but I can see one road that leads to happiness.

Day of Doom

I can clearly see the first terrible thing that will happen to my darling Kokoro. A trainer will come and he will hurt her. I will not let this happen, even if it means my own death. I swear it. This girl has suffered so much already, and she is healing. Her eyes no longer shift color, she is less traumatized by her past. Please Arceus, if you are listening, help my Kokoro.

Day of Death

I have stopped the trainer at the expense of my own life. I don't think I managed to stop anything, though. He has still hurt her, just not physically. I write this using my mind alone, my body is failing me. I'm so sorry, Kokoro. I can't help you anymore.

Different Accounts, 2005-2010

The heir has come at last. She is a young girl, far too young to be out on her own. How she got from Hoenn to here, she won't say. I believe she managed to get a ride on a migrating Swellow, but I guess we may never know. We will educate her in her history, and do our best to aid her on whatever mission she wishes to achieve. After so many years, it seems we still live on.

This young human certainly is something. She possesses an extreme capacity for knowledge, and I have managed to teach her all three dialects of the regions. She also has the mental capacity of an adult, and is very adept with puzzles.

Is it normal for me to take on a human student? No, it isn't. But she is no ordinary human. She is strong, and untrained power is useless. So I take her under my wing, and she will be feared as the mastermind behind all plans, Queen of the Night. I will make her a deadly enemy and a valuable ally, but she will never be a pawn.

The young girl I have agreed to train is an odd one. She never speaks to others of her kind, only to Pokémon. She has a strong will and a good heart, but I fear if she can't let go of her past she will never realize her true potential. I will train her in hand to hand combat, and perhaps then will she be able to walk with her head held high, safe with the knowledge she is capable.

Evelyn's journal, 2011

I will not pretend I still know the baby girl I left behind all those years ago. Kotone has grown up, and I am so proud of her. She doesn't talk to anybody but me, is that normal? I have been sick for about three years with cancer, and Kotone hasn't stopped beating herself up about not coming sooner. I'm still so glad I got to see my baby one last time though.

Speaking of children, a couple years back I met a pair of twins, one boy and one girl. The girl asked about my life, I told her about my daughter. She exchanged a look with her brother, and then gave me a stone, telling me to give it to Kotone. It looks plain, but in some areas it sparkles with a beautiful light. It resembles the Soul Dew, but that was lost thousands of years ago.

Journal of Lyra Soul, 2011-2012

The weirdest child came to live with me today. Her name is Kotone, and she is my best friend's daughter. She creeps me out. She never says a word despite her cheerful attitude, and I assume she is mute. We moved to Johto because of Evelyn's will, which said something along the lines of, "Keep Kotone away from her father. It's better if she stays away from him."

I always told her that Archie guy was no good for her. It must have been quite the breakup for her to hide her child from him.

Kotone has expressed interest in the path of a Pokémon Trainer. The moment she is able to, I will sign the form for her to be eligible for a starter, and if she doesn't get a starter I will get her an Eevee, she scares me that bad. Just yesterday, I found her sleeping in a tree instead of her bed, with a Golbat perched on her head. A Golbat! That girl isn't normal.

**Kotone: I asked Nite to send her Murkrow cronies to look for these records, and I will burn everything but the records of Viora and Mother. My past is for my eyes only, and even if it wasn't I don't think anybody can look at these records and fully understand, not even my team. I guess I can let go of my past after all.**


	27. Chapter 27: Final Battle?

A/N: No way! An _update?! _The hiatus is maybe still there, I just need to finish this fic…This chapter might suck due to the loooong hibernation of mine, DON'T KILL ME PLEASE! (*Runs away*) ….WAIT! I don't own Pokémon, even though I'm pretty sure I said that earlier. Thank you! (*Runs away again*)

With five people left, one would think that the tournament was over. However, Haylee had ever so rudely popped Kotone's bubble, informing her that there were still the Kanto competitors, who had competed on a different side of the plateau.

They had been narrowed down to five competitors as well, and the Johto and Kanto trainers would face off against each other, the winners moving on in the race to become Champion and the losers heading home to try again next year.

Kotone checked over her Pokémon again, she wouldn't and couldn't stop fussing over her team. Starfire nudged her, and Kotone calmed down.

"We'll be alright. We'll win this." The pep talk was more to sooth her own nerves than to cheer her team on, as Skydance and Queen both had a hard, determined look in their eyes, and the rest of her team danced with excitement.

Even Raikou seemed somewhat interested, and Kotone smiled as the platform they stood on was raised up above ground, coming to a stop ten feet above the stadium.

Looking in both directions, Kotone could see the other nine competitors, searching for familiar faces. She caught Haylee's eye, and the two nodded. In the corner of her eye, Kotone could see a splash of red. She met Silver's eye, but the contact was broken rather abruptly.

"Three…Two…One…" The crowd chanted along with the announcers, the noise echoing through the plateau. Kotone recalled her Pokémon, and curled her fingers around Starfire's luxury ball.

"ZERO!" Cries from all the different Pokémon, shouted commands from the trainers. Kotone smirked as her Typhlosion stared down an Ampharos, and she met the Ace Trainer's eye.

"Thunder!" The Ace Trainer, whose name Kotone hadn't learned, pointed at Starfire. Ampharos nodded, raising its paws in the air.

Starfire blew a small ember, scoffing. She then pushed off the ground, heading straight for Ampharos with Flame Wheel.

The two attacks collided, and Kotone gripped the railing as a wave of pain washed through her. Starfire got up again, glaring at the ampharos. "Bring it on, sheep!" Kotone frowned, as she could feel the pain Starfire hid.

The ampharos leered back. "Says the enormous mouse thing!"

"Discharge!" Ampharos glowed with a harsh, bright light, and a wave of electricity washed through the stadium, making Starfire growl in pain and Kotone's hair stand on end.

"Blast Burn," Kotone whispered, and Starfire smirked. "Now we're talking."  She opened her mouth, releasing a torrent of flames that rushed towards Ampharos.

The poor thing couldn't even manage a squeak of surprise as the wall of flame hit, and the Ace Trainer swore.

"Return, Ampharos!" The Ampharos rushed forward again, slamming all of its weight into Starfire and throwing her back several feet.

Starfire winced, and Kotone's knees shook from the pain doubling across to her. She raised the luxury ball, but Starfire had already unleashed another Blast Burn, fainting Ampharos easily.

Moments later, the typhlosion collapsed, and a frantic Kotone quickly recalled her.

"Blastoise, go!"

Kotone raised her pokeball, and Raikou burst out in a flash of light.

"Earthquake!"

Blastoise slammed its foot into the ground, and the entire stadium began to shake rapidly.

Raikou let out an angry roar, jaws sparking with electricity. Running forward, it sank its fangs into Blastoise's arm and discharged as much electricity as possible, causing Blastoise to let out a cry of pain and fling the legendary off.

"Earthquake again!"

Blastoise happily agreed to this, and Raikou was left barely standing. Kotone hissed again, wondering why she even bothered with Pokémon training if it hurt so badly.

A bolt of lightning struck Blastoise hard, illuminating the stadium even in the early morning daylight. Blastoise fainted, and the sullen Ace Trainer recalled his fallen Pokémon.

Kotone did likewise, recalling Raikou and searching through her bag for a potion.

"Victreebel!"The Flycatcher Pokémon lashed its leaves around, waiting for a command.

Skydance trilled, flying off the platform and landing with her wings spread haughtily.

"Wring Out!" Victreebel, with more speed than a plant with no legs should have, rushed forwards and wrapped its long vine around Skydance, oozing acid on her feathers.

Skydance shrilled in anger, smacking Victreebel upside the head with her wings, forcing it to let her go.

"Leaf Storm!" Leaves from nowhere gathered together, all of them heading forward and cutting Skydance in various locations.

Skydance, not willing to be a sitting Farfetch'd, quickly took to the skies before Victreebel could dump a glob of sizzling poison on her.

"…Wait it out, Victreebel! When that Pidgeot comes back, give it a good Sludge Bomb!" Victreebel lashed its leaf again, waiting for Skydance to make her grand appearance.

Grand it was, as Skydance came down with the sun's rays silhouetting her form, and she quickly raked her talons down Victreebel's side.

"Return, Victreebel!" The Ace Trainer quickly recalled his Pokémon before Skydance could further maul it, and fumbled for his next Pokémon.

"Lapras, go!"

Skydance glanced at the newcomer, and Kotone whipped out her nearly forgotten Pokédex.

_An ice type…._ She shook her head, and recalled Skydance.

Cream purred happily, before glancing at Lapras. Raising her paws in the air, a bolt of lightning dropped out of the sky and hit the Transport Pokémon.

"…Lapras! Surf!" Water seeped out of the ground and formed out of the water in the air, turning the stadium into a swimming pool.

Cream floundered in the water, and wailed when Lapras crashed into her. Grabbing a stray rock that had been thrown into the stadium from a nearby ring, she scrambled up and pointed a paw at Lapras.

The next bolt of lightning barely missed Lapras, and the Ace Trainer smirked. "Brine!" Cream sputtered as she was bathed in salt water, growling at Lapras.

Leaping off her rock, the sodden ball of fluff launched herself at the larger Pokémon, battering at Lapras with her paws.

"…Ice Beam." The Ace Trainer seemed unfazed by Cream's temper tantrum, and Cream wailed as she was hit with the attack, her last Thunder hitting as she lost conscious.

Kotone grit her teeth, and wondered how many Pokémon he had left.

"Nidoking, go!" As he was released, the nidoking beat his chest and roared, ignoring the water lapping at his feet.

Bellatona roared back, glaring at the smaller Pokémon. Nidoking shrank back before the red gyarados, and the Ace Trainer sighed.

"Thunder Punch." Nidoking rushed forward, punching Bellatona in the side. She roared, thrashing her tail around, smacking Nidoking away with Aqua Tail.

"…Again!" Nidoking grinned savagely, delivering a flurry of quick Thunder Punches.

_He didn't…._Kotone tried to gauge the pain of the attacks, and sighed. _I hope I won't be disqualified for a gyarados mauling the opponent's Nidoking…_

Bellatona roared in pain, swinging her tail and causing a mini tidal wave with her Aqua Tail. And then, defying all rules of Pokémon battling, she moved again, rushing forward with Surf and finishing with Ice Fang. The Ace Trainer gaped at the ferocious display, unable to call out a command.

Nidoking fainted easily, and Kotone had to try three times before she could recall her temperamental Pokémon.

"Damnnit!" The Ace Trainer recalled his Pokémon, and sent out his last healthy Pokémon. "Dragonite!"

Kotone had to hand it to him, she nearly rage-quit right there. She reached for her last pokeball, sending out Vee.

"Dragon Rush!" Dragonite rushed at Vee, smacking her into the sky.

Vee hissed in pain, landing on her feet and glaring. She turned her back on Dragonite, and began to kick dirt in its face.

"….Dragonite, Dragon Rush again!" The dragonite rushed at Vee, but missed by a wide margin. Vee then retaliated with a Shadow Ball to the face, taking devious pleasure in Dragonite's discomfort.

"Thunder!" A bolt of lightning dropped out of the sky, but again, it missed Vee. She then took the opportunity to use Psychic, lifting Dragonite in the air before dropping it again.

"Dragon Rage!" The attack hit, and Vee wailed. Kotone frowned, and dug through her bag for a potion. Finding a Hyper Potion, she clicked the nozzle and sprayed a small stream of the precious medicine on Vee.

Vee sighed in relief, but it was rather short-lived, as Dragonite took the chance to hit her with another Dragon Rush.

"Dragoni-!" The Ace Trainer frowned as the Dragonite clutched its head, the after effect of Vee's Future Sight. Kotone sighed, recalling Vee and sending out Bellatona.

"Dragon Rush!" Bellatone moved out of the way of the attack, before lunging and biting down with Ice Fang.

"Thunder!" As Dragonite slipped into unconscious, it gave one last blow, fainting Bellatona easily.

Kotone recalled her Pokémon with a sigh, waiting for Victreebel to be sent out again.

"Victreebel, go!" The Ace Trainer sent out a healed Victreebel, and Kotone got ready to finish the battle quickly.

Skydance quickly flew up, circling above the pissed off Victreebel.

"Wait for it, Victreebel! Hit Pidgeot with Sludge Bomb." Victreebel nodded, acid bubbling out of its mouth and falling to the ground, where it hissed and steamed.

Skydance flew back down, raking her talons down Victreebel's side and getting a glob of poison in her face for it.

"Leaf Blade!" Victreebel nodded, and using its leaf as a sword, began to slash at Skydance with it.

The moment she could escape from the relentless blows, Skydance flew back up into the air, causing the Ace Trainer to moan. "Victreebel…Sludge Bomb when it gets back."

Victreebel never had a chance. Skydance flew back down, going too fast for the Victreebel to get a move in before it fainted.

A half smile graced Kotone's features as the Ace Trainer recalled his fainted Pokémon, before the pain from her Pokémon's fainting caused Kotone to keel over and fall of the platform.

A/N: …I think this chapter is slightly longer that my normal ones…consider it an apology for not updating in centuries. (Sorry, 2 months and 6 days) So um….review please? :)


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